Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Cut by CENTRAL TRUST Co

CENTRAL TRUST Co trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 20.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,488 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,437,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Slow Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the second 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 grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.5% in the second quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 747 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Encompass More Asset Management increased its position in Accenture by 4.8% during the second quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 700 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $212,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $364.20 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $348.78 and a 200-day moving average of $322.52. The firm has a market cap of $228.24 billion, a PE ratio of 33.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase 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 generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113 over the last 90 days. 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.