Belmont Capital LLC Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Belmont Capital LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,414 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 40 shares during the quarter. Belmont Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $500,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 97,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,309,000 after purchasing an additional 10,750 shares during the period. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 94,866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $33,533,000 after acquiring an additional 2,307 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 843,330 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $298,100,000 after purchasing an additional 50,866 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 1.9% during the third quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,055,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $355.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $327.83. The company has a market capitalization of $220.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company 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.