Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Decreased by KPP Advisory Services LLC

KPP Advisory Services LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 197 shares during the period. KPP Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,156,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third 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. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC grew its position in Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $8.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $353.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,624,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,730,625. The company has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $355.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $327.08. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’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 owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. 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. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.