Fiduciary Trust Co Has $14.86 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fiduciary Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,041 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 577 shares during the quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,861,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Austin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $240,000. Raelipskie Partnership bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at $951,000. PGGM Investments lifted its position in Accenture by 428.3% in the 1st quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 15,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,345,000 after acquiring an additional 12,501 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in Accenture by 222.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 111,474 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,638,000 after purchasing an additional 76,943 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 52.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 35,908 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,446,000 after purchasing an additional 12,312 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $362.23 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $357.61 and its 200 day moving average is $330.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.69, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction 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 $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.