Truist Financial Corp Sells 424,146 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Truist Financial Corp trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 50.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 408,669 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 424,146 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp owned approximately 0.07% of Accenture worth $123,994,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its position in shares of Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $286,220,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $263,421,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $353.33 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $334.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $320.23. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Wedbush reduced their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture 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.