Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Has $1.80 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,070 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 70.6% in the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.1% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.7% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % 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 three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $362.39 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $358.68 and its 200 day moving average is $330.84. The company has a market cap of $226.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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.