Canopy Partners LLC Buys 40 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Canopy Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,952 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Canopy Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,043,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $256,000. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $420,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.9% during the first quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 50,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,529,000 after buying an additional 4,113 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 45.7% during the first quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 28,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,852,000 after buying an additional 8,910 shares during the period. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 137.0% during the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 23,048 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,989,000 after buying an additional 13,325 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % 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 worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $358.66 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $328.98. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change 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 dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.