Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. Has $324,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 89.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 917 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 7,913 shares during the period. Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 21,516 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $19,007,000. Finally, Creative Planning increased its stake in Accenture by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $87,566,000 after acquiring an additional 12,993 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine 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.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of ACN opened at $364.20 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $228.24 billion, a PE ratio of 33.35, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $348.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $322.52.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. 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 54.21%.

Accenture Company Profile

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.