Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Raymond James Trust N.A.

Raymond James Trust N.A. trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,544 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,912 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,978,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Capital International Inc. CA purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $1,063,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $256,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 13.1% during the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 288,313 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $99,932,000 after acquiring an additional 33,357 shares during the period. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 1,759,189 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $609,752,000 after purchasing an additional 18,950 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after purchasing an additional 148,738 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $360.41 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $356.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $328.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $225.31 billion, a PE ratio of 31.53, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.