Kimelman & Baird LLC Acquires Shares of 1,000 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,000 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,776,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,278,000 after buying an additional 2,903 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 11,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,016,000 after buying an additional 3,445 shares during the period. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 53,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,653,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $353.33 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $221.43 billion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $334.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $320.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. Wedbush cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 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.