Harbour Capital Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Harbour Capital Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,614 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 80 shares during the quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,684,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Wedmont Private Capital increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,402,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 8.3% in the first quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 1,925 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Eldred Rock Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the first quarter. Eldred Rock Partners LLC now owns 27,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,514,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. Boston Standard Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Boston Standard Wealth Management LLC now owns 840 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $375.30 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $344.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $321.51. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $235.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.37, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business 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 is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The trade was a 0.00 % 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, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.