D.A. Davidson & CO. Buys 2,742 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 108,018 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,742 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $38,182,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Qsemble Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,597,000. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in Accenture by 9.5% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,666,734 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $582,857,000 after buying an additional 145,294 shares during the last quarter. Associated Banc Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 6.7% in the third quarter. Associated Banc Corp now owns 1,180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $417,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. Diversified LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Diversified LLC now owns 1,844 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $652,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 344.7% during the 3rd quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 15,890 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,593,000 after acquiring an additional 12,317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $361.29 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $356.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $329.61. The company has a market cap of $225.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 for 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given 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 1.64%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % 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 worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.