Kelleher Financial Advisors Makes New $256,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kelleher Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 830 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $256,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 48,035,644 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,729,067,000 after buying an additional 634,462 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 21.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,535,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,297,009,000 after purchasing an additional 2,060,646 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.7% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,463,180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,269,319,000 after purchasing an additional 191,640 shares in the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $356.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, November 7th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $333.00 price target for the company. Barclays increased their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 11th. Piper Sandler Companies cut their target price on Accenture from $314.00 to $312.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $337.26.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

ACN opened at $327.32 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $309.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $307.39. The company has a market capitalization of $205.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.39, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $242.80 and a 52 week high of $330.43.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.07 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.60 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 12th were issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 11th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.91%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total transaction of $1,887,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,816,308.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total transaction of $1,887,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,816,308.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.41, for a total value of $2,622,690.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,441,220.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,334 shares of company stock worth $10,939,027. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company 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.