MCF Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MCF Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 37 shares during the quarter. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Covenant Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Covenant Partners LLC now owns 6,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,276,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $577,000. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN increased its position in Accenture by 285.5% during the 3rd quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 586 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares during the period. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arkadios Wealth Advisors lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 56.5% in the 3rd quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 4,650 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,644,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

ACN traded down $3.43 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $360.80. 2,129,390 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,722,404. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $350.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $323.02. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

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