First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 620 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Tsfg LLC grew its position in Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $362.23 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $330.24. The company has a market capitalization of $226.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. 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. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Company Profile

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.