Hilltop Holdings Inc. Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1,105.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 33,631 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,840 shares during the period. Accenture comprises about 0.8% of Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,888,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $362.37 on Monday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $226.54 billion, a PE ratio of 31.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $358.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $331.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % 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. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

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.