Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Wallace Advisory Group LLC

Wallace Advisory Group LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 278 shares during the quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $930,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 100.0% during the fourth 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 worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $286,220,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $263,421,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $364.64.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $349.70 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $333.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business’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. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.