Quarry LP Has $198,000 Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 340.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 652 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the quarter. Quarry LP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $198,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were 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 owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was 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 directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $353.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $334.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $320.23.

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

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

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.