Entropy Technologies LP Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Entropy Technologies LP 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 and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $745,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners raised its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2 %

Accenture stock opened at $362.10 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $354.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $326.48. The company has a market capitalization of $226.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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 company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board 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 1.63%. 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 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

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.