Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Lowered by Frazier Financial Advisors LLC

Frazier Financial Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 35.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,971 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 7,058 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 3.6% of Frazier Financial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,585,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners raised its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 0.4% in the third quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Down 2.3 %

ACN opened at $353.57 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $355.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $327.26. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a PE ratio of 30.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 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.