Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Lionsbridge Wealth Management LLC

Lionsbridge Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,391 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 37 shares during the quarter. Lionsbridge Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,552,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after purchasing an additional 148,738 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $355.51 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $353.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.32. The company has a market capitalization of $222.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 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 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 the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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 1.67%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 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 approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.