Anchor Investment Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,661 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,718,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in Accenture by 18.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in Accenture by 11.9% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 13.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $19,007,000. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 27.8% during the first quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,778,000 after purchasing an additional 14,283 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Up 1.4 %

ACN stock opened at $361.37 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $226.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $335.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.60.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.