Foster & Motley Inc. Acquires Shares of 21,119 Accenture PLC $ACN

Foster & Motley Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 21,119 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,628,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. grew its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the third quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. now owns 4,416 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,089,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Peak Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC now owns 5,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,461,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,751 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,108,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. now owns 1,433 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $384,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Intrua Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $387,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 10,498 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.98, for a total transaction of $1,710,964.04. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 17,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,890,450.30. This trade represents a 37.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Argus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $315.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Accenture from $247.00 to $201.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Accenture from $253.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $192.96.

Accenture Trading Up 1.9%

NYSE:ACN opened at $173.16 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $115.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.83, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $151.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $181.45. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $118.15 and a 52 week high of $291.09.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.10. Accenture had a net margin of 10.66% and a return on equity of 26.47%. The company had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 9th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.08%.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.