Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by American Trust

American Trust decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 810 shares during the period. American Trust’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,379,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.4% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 314,626 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $110,406,000 after purchasing an additional 39,701 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $116,954,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after acquiring an additional 159,696 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 191.9% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 95,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $33,642,000 after purchasing an additional 63,024 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 50,073 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,571,000 after purchasing an additional 1,745 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on ACN shares. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $352.04 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $220.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.24, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $334.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $320.07. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

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

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.