Copley Financial Group Inc. Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,339 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $473,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $422.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho increased their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America upped their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $373.32.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $1.81 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $358.37. The company had a trading volume of 108,984 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,673,358. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $360.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $334.25. The stock has a market cap of $224.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.52, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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.