Caprock Group LLC Acquires 10,750 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 97,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,750 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.2% of Caprock Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $34,309,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathstone Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% in the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 94,866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $33,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,307 shares during the period. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 843,330 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $298,100,000 after buying an additional 50,866 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,055,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Zevin Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the third quarter. Zevin Asset Management LLC now owns 33,532 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $11,853,000 after acquiring an additional 857 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $220.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $355.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $327.83. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.