Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 50,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 855 shares during the period. Accenture comprises about 2.4% of Barlow Wealth Partners Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,996,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Regal Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $729,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 66,553 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $23,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,287 shares during the last quarter. Symmetry Investments LP purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $432,000. MGO One Seven LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 5,330 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,870,000 after buying an additional 348 shares during the period. Finally, Ethic Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 57,554 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,196,000 after buying an additional 2,445 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of 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 trade was 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 this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

ACN traded up $1.31 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $361.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 89,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,752,592. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $337.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $319.95. 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 $226.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Accenture

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.