Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Decreases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 584,943 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 26,585 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 0.6% of Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $206,766,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Tsfg LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $362.37 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $358.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $331.17. The company has a market cap of $226.54 billion, a PE ratio of 31.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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.