Executive Wealth Management LLC Has $8.06 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Executive Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,788 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,438 shares during the quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,055,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.8% during the second quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 5,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,647,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 3.8% during the second quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,303,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $424,000. Tsfg LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cascade Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.4% during the second quarter. Cascade Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,155,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $372.09.

Accenture Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $359.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $360.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $333.42.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.