Global Wealth Strategies & Associates Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Global Wealth Strategies & Associates lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 475 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 74 shares during the quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates’ holdings in Accenture were worth $168,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in 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 worth $614,615,000 after buying an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $286,220,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 251.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE ACN opened at $356.31 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $335.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $320.32. The company has a market capitalization of $223.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 54.21%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.