Old North State Trust LLC Purchases 57 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Old North State Trust LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.0% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,942 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the quarter. Old North State Trust LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $589,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ACN. Susquehanna increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Wedbush cut 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of ACN opened at $349.70 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $333.92 and its 200 day moving average is $320.40. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

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

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors 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 represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.