Waddell & Associates LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Waddell & Associates LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,368 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $484,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $256,000. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $420,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 50,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,529,000 after acquiring an additional 4,113 shares in the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 45.7% in the 1st quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 28,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,852,000 after purchasing an additional 8,910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 137.0% in the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 23,048 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,989,000 after purchasing an additional 13,325 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $358.66 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $356.42 and its 200-day moving average is $328.98.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.