Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Trims Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 45.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 176 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 148 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Accenture were worth $62,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 747 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $227,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Encompass More Asset Management lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 700 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $212,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $1.00 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $362.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,131,552 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,774,898. The firm has a market capitalization of $227.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.17, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $336.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.53. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Morgan Stanley downgraded 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 report on Wednesday, June 26th. Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was 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 $7,564,161.45. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.