Resonant Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Resonant Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,615 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 28 shares during the quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,459,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its stake in Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after buying an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $19,007,000. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 27.8% during the 1st quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,778,000 after buying an additional 14,283 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE ACN opened at $376.86 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $236.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $345.48 and a 200 day moving average of $321.67.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors 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 1.57%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $8,282,341. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.