Annandale Capital LLC Buys Shares of 1,755 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Annandale Capital LLC bought a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,755 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $333.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $320.81. The company has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. 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 report on Friday. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $364.64.

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.