Accenture plc, the information technology services provider, has seen a rise in the number of shares held by Valeo Financial Advisors LLC. The investment firm recently acquired an additional 800 shares taking its total to 4,848. This has brought the total value of their holdings in Accenture to $1,386,000. The move is said to be based on the company’s potential for growth and profitability.
The increased interest in Accenture has not gone unnoticed by industry experts with many weighing in on the potential of this tech giant. William Blair reiterated their ‘outperform’ rating on shares of Accenture while Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised its price objective for Accenture from $292.00 to $377.00 in its most recent research report. StockNews.com also upgraded its rating on Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating based on positive performance indicators.
Despite experiencing mixed reports from brokerages, Accenture remains buoyant with nine equities research analysts giving it a hold rating while ten issuing a buy rating which brings it into line with Bloomberg’s consensus target price of $326.55 given that they currently have a moderate buy rating.
The share price for NYSE:ACN opened at $297.45 and reached a twelve month high of $327.93 before settling at around $297 at close yesterday with heavy trading volume observed as valuations continue to fluctuate.
Going forward, investors will be keeping an eye on how Accenture performs next quarter and will likely reposition their holdings accordingly as some believe there may still be time to capitalize on the company’s current level of momentum towards growth and profitability despite present challenges facing companies globally due to ongoing economic uncertainty and pandemic-related disruptions across several sectors end-users such as consulting services that are heavily reliant upon information technology talent pool for success plans can be put into place long term success through diverse sourcing initiatives coupled with long-term technology planning strategies to support the rapidly changing landscape.
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Accenture Sees Changes in Investor Holdings and Insider Trading Activities, While Meeting or Exceeding Predicted Earnings Figures and Declaring Quarterly Dividend
Accenture, the information technology services provider, has seen several large investors modify their holdings in the company with Cadence Bank increasing its position by 0.7% in Q1 to a total of 4,999 shares worth $1.69m after purchasing an additional 36 shares over the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank increased its position by 3.4% during Q4 last year to a total of 1,099 shares worth $294,000 following an additional purchase of 36 shares and Versant Capital Management raised its stake by 5.1% in Q1 this year for a total of 758 shares worth $217,000 after purchasing an extra 37 shares over the quarter. Institutional investors currently hold around 73% of Accenture’s stock.
In other news surrounding the technology firm, insider Ellyn Shook sold over $1m worth of Accenture stock when she sold off some 5,250 shares at an average price of $275.90 per share on Monday April 24th. General counsel Joel Unruch also disposed of some stock recently selling off just over half a thousand shares for around $154k on Friday April 21st.
Despite this activity by insiders and investors alike, Accenture has received favourable ratings from multiple brokerages such as William Blair and Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft as well as seeing its stock upgraded from “hold” to “buy” by Edward Jones most recently on Wednesday June 5th.
Accenture also reported earnings results for Q2 on Thursday June 22nd with their information technology services division announcing EPS figures of $3.19 that beat predictions averaging $2.96 by relatively significant margin approaching nearly one-quarter above expected earnings figures. Revenue was up from the same period last year increasing nearly three percent overall to hit targets almost synchronously with estimated expectations totalling approximately $16.56bn which was slightly above the expected figure of $16.49bn.
Accenture has also announced a quarterly dividend which is set to be paid to all stakeholders on Tuesday August 15th with a total payout of $1.12 per share declared and record holders assigned on Thursday July 13th. This dividend represents approximately $4.48 annually yielding at around just over one-and-a-half percent, which supports industry expectations for this stock as being a moderate buy rating with an overall consensus target price of $326.55 according to Bloomberg data, having estimated that Accenture’s current average dividend payout ratio stands at roughly 39% currently.