Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Quantbot Technologies LP

Quantbot Technologies LP trimmed its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 27.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,624 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 7,000 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,583,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird increased 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. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $361.29 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $356.57 and a 200 day moving average of $329.61. The firm has a market cap of $225.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.61, a PEG ratio of 3.14 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.