Avestar Capital LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Avestar Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 30.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 782 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,178,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $125,126,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $363.20 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $227.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $357.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $330.01.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in 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 plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna raised 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.