First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 20.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 22,850 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,950 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,077,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America upped their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $12.08 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $350.96. The stock had a trading volume of 953,448 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,713,580. The company has a market capitalization of $219.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $351.54 and a 200-day moving average of $323.52.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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.