Community Financial Services Group LLC Raises Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Community Financial Services Group LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,095 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Community Financial Services Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,801,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 5,557 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,964,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 19.2% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 14,994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,300,000 after purchasing an additional 2,419 shares in the last quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd boosted its position in Accenture by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 125,455 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $44,216,000 after purchasing an additional 5,352 shares in the last quarter. James Hambro & Partners LLP boosted its position in Accenture by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. James Hambro & Partners LLP now owns 1,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toth Financial Advisory Corp boosted its position in Accenture by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 7,274 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,571,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,548 shares of company stock valued at $3,936,838 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $376.03 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $346.72 and a 200 day moving average of $321.91. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $235.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.