Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 30 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 28,113 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 30 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 0.9% of Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,937,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 5.0% in the first quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,275 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,215,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares during the last quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC grew its position in Accenture by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC now owns 4,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,597,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the first quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 114.2% during the first quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 7,327 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,540,000 after acquiring an additional 3,907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $19,007,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $360.56 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $225.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $354.85 and a 200-day moving average of $326.48.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

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.