Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. Buys New Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in 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 acquired 617 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BTS Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $286,000. Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC now owns 24,001 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,484,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.0% in the third quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 1,924 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $680,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 42.3% during the third quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 1,700 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $606,000 after buying an additional 505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, YHB Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 9.9% during the third quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 8,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,005,000 after buying an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $364.20 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $348.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $322.52. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $228.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 directly 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.