Aureus Asset Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Aureus Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,352 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 155 shares during the quarter. Aureus Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $478,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 1,803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $547,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Somerset Trust Co grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Somerset Trust Co now owns 12,617 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,828,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Arden Trust Co grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Arden Trust Co now owns 5,671 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,721,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its holdings in Accenture by 132.4% in the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 67,573 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,519,000 after buying an additional 38,502 shares during the period. Finally, Apella Capital LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 9,410 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,805,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.37 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $226.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $358.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $331.17. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend 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 currently 51.79%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

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.