Wintrust Investments LLC Purchases New Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wintrust Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 6,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,915,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 101,214.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,078,141,000 after purchasing an additional 4,036,414 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 21.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,535,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,297,009,000 after purchasing an additional 2,060,646 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $426,367,000. 70.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $325.67 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $242.80 and a 12 month high of $330.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $309.84 and a 200-day moving average of $307.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 28th. The information technology services provider reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.06. Accenture had a return on equity of 29.74% and a net margin of 10.72%. The company had revenue of $15.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.60 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 12th were given a $1.29 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.91%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Piper Sandler Companies lowered their target price on Accenture from $314.00 to $312.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 22nd. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 in a report on Friday, September 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $337.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.68, for a total value of $2,832,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 26,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,442,864.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.48, for a total value of $1,567,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,265 shares in the company, valued at $6,048,697.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.68, for a total value of $2,832,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 26,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,442,864.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,334 shares of company stock worth $10,939,027 in the last quarter. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.