World Investment Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

World Investment Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,320 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 652 shares during the quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,001,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Accenture by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,492,000 after acquiring an additional 1,142 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 64.1% in the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 19,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,384,000 after purchasing an additional 7,658 shares in the last quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $269,000. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Finally, TCW Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 3.5% during the second quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,480,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. 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. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $358.68 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $224.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $360.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $334.65.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $373.32.

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.