Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by New England Research & Management Inc.

New England Research & Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 42.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,510 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the quarter. New England Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $534,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 1.1% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Accenture by 1.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Accenture by 2.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after acquiring an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after acquiring an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE ACN traded down $5.56 on Monday, reaching $356.68. 1,536,464 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,768,483. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $336.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $319.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 54.21%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. 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 quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.