Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC Purchases New Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 9,091 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,758,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $762,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $794,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,776,000. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in Accenture by 19.4% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $349.70 on Monday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a PE ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $333.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. TD Cowen raised their price target on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of 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 report on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $364.64.

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.