Searle & CO. Sells 41 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Searle & CO. lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 41 shares during the period. Searle & CO.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $284,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. TFG Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 2,952 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,043,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $233,000. Greenleaf Trust raised its stake in Accenture by 4.0% in the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 25,122 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,880,000 after buying an additional 974 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% in the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 228,043 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $80,609,000 after buying an additional 3,327 shares during the period. Finally, Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 898 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $2.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $369.61. 370,646 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,718,071. The firm has a market cap of $231.63 billion, a PE ratio of 34.04, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $347.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $322.19. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,548 shares of company stock valued at $7,322,278 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

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.