Pathway Financial Advisers LLC Purchases New Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,633 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $577,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 13.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $19,007,000. Creative Planning raised its stake in Accenture by 5.5% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $87,566,000 after buying an additional 12,993 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 27.8% during the first quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,778,000 after buying an additional 14,283 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $360.80 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $226.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $350.24 and a 200 day moving average of $322.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture 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.