Crew Capital Management Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

by · The Markets Daily

Crew Capital Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,502 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 501 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 1.0% of Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after buying an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $19,007,000. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.8% during the 1st quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,778,000 after buying an additional 14,283 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

View Our Latest Analysis on ACN

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $2.07 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $374.79. 446,619 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,728,108. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business has a 50-day moving average of $345.48 and a 200-day moving average of $321.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $234.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 15,548 shares of company stock worth $5,585,938. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

(Free Report)

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.

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