Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Lessened by Horan Capital Advisors LLC.

Horan Capital Advisors LLC. decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,058 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 125 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 1.4% of Horan Capital Advisors LLC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Horan Capital Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after buying an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after buying an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $327.83. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $220.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture Company Profile

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.