Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Acquires 2,211 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 92,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,211 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $27,938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 67,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,530,000 after acquiring an additional 7,254 shares in the last quarter. Silver Lake Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,496,000. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,758,000. Copperwynd Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30.9% during the 2nd quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 2,511 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $830,000 after buying an additional 593 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 234,731 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $71,220,000 after buying an additional 10,559 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $353.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $221.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $334.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $320.23. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month 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 for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wedbush reduced their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.