Clearbridge Investments LLC Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 837,677 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 0.43% of Accenture worth $822,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $286,220,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $263,421,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,165,000 after acquiring an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Insider Activity at Accenture

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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $353.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $334.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost 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 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.