DDD Partners LLC Has $7.01 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

27 Dec 2023, 15:02 by Scott Moore · The Cerbat Gem

DDD Partners LLC cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 36.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,021 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 13,431 shares during the quarter. DDD Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,007,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $1,850,765,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2,444.1% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 5,922,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,320,000 after purchasing an additional 5,689,509 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 101,214.0% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Accenture by 14.9% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in 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 worth $3,297,009,000 after purchasing an additional 2,060,646 shares during the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Accenture stock opened at $354.51 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $324.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $317.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.61 billion, a PE ratio of 32.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $242.80 and a 1-year high of $355.38.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.14 by $0.13. Accenture had a net margin of 10.65% and a return on equity of 29.08%. The business had revenue of $16.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.08 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 18th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 17th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.82%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 28th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $358.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, September 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 9th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $332.00 to $322.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $348.59.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Accenture

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, Director Paula A. Price sold 551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.36, for a total value of $190,293.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,583 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,273,504.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Paula A. Price sold 551 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.36, for a total value of $190,293.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,583 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,273,504.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.68, for a total transaction of $2,832,120.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 a total of 36,885 shares of company stock valued at $11,129,320 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.