Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Trimmed by Strategy Asset Managers LLC

Strategy Asset Managers LLC reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,267 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 583 shares during the quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,336,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prospera Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,673 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $591,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 18.2% in the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,763 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $623,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 1.5% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 933,391 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $329,935,000 after acquiring an additional 13,509 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 24,758 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SouthState Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 36,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,830,000 after purchasing an additional 3,279 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $353.85 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $355.89 and a 200-day moving average of $328.19. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $221.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho increased their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade 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. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.