Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Increased by Callan Family Office LLC

Callan Family Office LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 72.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,590 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,092 shares during the quarter. Callan Family Office LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $916,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after buying an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after buying an additional 173,107 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after buying an additional 148,738 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $356.68 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $336.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $319.71. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was 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 owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Accenture 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.