Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Reduced by Smithfield Trust Co

Smithfield Trust Co lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,562 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 332 shares during the period. Smithfield Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,971,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $357.04 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $356.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $328.39.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.