Chesapeake Wealth Management Has $2.45 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Chesapeake Wealth Management decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,925 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 53 shares during the quarter. Chesapeake Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,448,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 97,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,309,000 after acquiring an additional 10,750 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 94,866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $33,533,000 after buying an additional 2,307 shares during the period. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.4% in the third 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 during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.9% during the third quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,055,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $220.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $355.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $327.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Accenture

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.