Verity & Verity LLC Has $1.91 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Verity & Verity LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,403 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,910,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 24.8% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 378 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $134,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 12.5% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 97,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $34,309,000 after buying an additional 10,750 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.5% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 94,866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $33,533,000 after buying an additional 2,307 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 843,330 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $298,100,000 after buying an additional 50,866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.9% during the third quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,055,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.55 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50-day moving average is $355.77 and its 200-day moving average is $327.83. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average 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.