Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Janney Capital Management LLC

Janney Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 33,103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 319 shares during the quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,702,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $19,007,000. Creative Planning lifted its position in Accenture by 5.5% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $87,566,000 after purchasing an additional 12,993 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 41.6% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 12,216 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,318,000 after purchasing an additional 3,586 shares during the period. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.8% in the 1st quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,778,000 after buying an additional 14,283 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $345.67 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $352.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $324.12. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $216.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Barclays upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. 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 available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914 in 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.