Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Purchases 17,372 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 167,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,372 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $51,554,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. United Bank grew its holdings in Accenture by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after buying an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the first quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares in the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 104.8% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $148,871,000 after purchasing an additional 225,943 shares in the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 26,830 shares in the company, valued at $8,442,864.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 26,830 shares in the company, valued at $8,442,864.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total value of $1,887,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,816,308.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,334 shares of company stock worth $10,939,027 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 29th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Piper Sandler Companies lowered their price target on Accenture from $314.00 to $312.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $337.26.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $327.83 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $309.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $307.95. The company has a market capitalization of $205.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $242.80 and a 1-year 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $15.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.07 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 29.74% and a net margin of 10.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 12th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 11th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.91%.

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.