Souders Financial Advisors Purchases Shares of 744 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Souders Financial Advisors bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $263,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tsfg LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 $2,062.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. 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 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $360.64 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $354.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $326.17. 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 $225.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.