OneAscent Financial Services LLC Sells 108 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 705 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 108 shares during the quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 30.6% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 68,695 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $23,810,000 after acquiring an additional 16,093 shares during the period. Ossiam boosted its holdings in Accenture by 3.0% during the first quarter. Ossiam now owns 15,203 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,270,000 after buying an additional 443 shares during the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $145,000. Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 11,563 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after acquiring an additional 874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Delap Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $274,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $353.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.21 billion, a PE ratio of 30.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $355.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $328.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

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.