Ted Buchan & Co Acquires Shares of 1,070 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ted Buchan & Co acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,070 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $325,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Platform Technology Partners grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $733,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $19,007,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reduced their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target 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 target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $353.33 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $334.35 and its 200 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 positive change 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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

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.