Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 499,865 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,413,097 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 499,865 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 1.1% of Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,680,822,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE ACN opened at $357.04 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $356.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $328.39.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.