3,200 Shares in Accenture PLC $ACN Acquired by Caldwell Investment Management Ltd.

Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 3,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $398,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. now owns 4,416 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,089,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Peak Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC now owns 5,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,461,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,751 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,108,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Intrua Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $387,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $139,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 target price on Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $247.00 to $201.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $180.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, William Blair downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $192.96.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $185.04 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $151.90 and its 200-day moving average is $180.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market capitalization of $123.57 billion, a PE ratio of 14.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.09. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $118.15 and a 12-month high of $291.09.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.78 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.66% and a return on equity of 26.47%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.49 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.08%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, June 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 2.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 10,498 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.98, for a total value of $1,710,964.04. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 17,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,890,450.30. The trade was a 37.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.