First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Sells 4,794 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. trimmed its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 60,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 4,794 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $21,521,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after acquiring an additional 173,107 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Accenture by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after acquiring an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after purchasing an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. 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 the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,693 shares of company stock worth $8,282,341. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $376.86 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $236.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $345.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $321.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in 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 often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Accenture 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.