Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Intrepid Capital Management Inc.

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,486 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 210 shares during the quarter. Intrepid Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after buying an additional 131,544 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after acquiring an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after purchasing an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $10.67 on Tuesday, reaching $350.71. 671,683 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,693,917. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $358.68 and a 200 day moving average of $331.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

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.