Private Advisor Group LLC Sells 562 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Private Advisor Group LLC lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,310 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 562 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,775,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. lifted its position in Accenture by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. now owns 9,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,319,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the period. RBA Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 26.7% in the third quarter. RBA Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,179 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,184,000 after buying an additional 1,302 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.3% in the third quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,035 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,487,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Leo Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 4,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,591,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eastern Bank lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1,421.6% in the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 43,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,533,000 after purchasing an additional 41,056 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $364.20 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.35, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day moving average of $348.78 and a 200-day moving average of $322.52.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current 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 issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture declared 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 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price 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 lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, 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 transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113. 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.