Synovus Financial Corp Trims Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Synovus Financial Corp reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 25,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 549 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Castellan Group boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Castellan Group now owns 8,165 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,886,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,555,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares in the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $18,115,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.1% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 101,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,375,000 after acquiring an additional 10,961 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,169,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $373.32.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $358.68 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $360.54 and its 200 day moving average is $334.65. The company has a market capitalization of $224.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. 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.