Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 38.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 379,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 104,325 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Accenture were worth $115,011,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.2 %

ACN stock opened at $356.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $335.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $320.32. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. 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 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Wedbush lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

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.