Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Hancock Whitney Corp

Hancock Whitney Corp reduced its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,631 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 466 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,697,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $256,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 31.4% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,570 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,010,000 after purchasing an additional 2,768 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth $1,784,000. Finally, Vista Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 13,130 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,551,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE ACN opened at $361.29 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $356.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $329.61. The firm has a market cap of $225.86 billion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock 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 generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.