Carlson Capital Management Trims Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Carlson Capital Management trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 31,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 122 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 0.5% of Carlson Capital Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Carlson Capital Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,022,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% during the third quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 627,419 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $221,780,000 after purchasing an additional 6,980 shares in the last quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 98.4% during the third quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC now owns 4,006 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,987 shares in the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 30.7% during the third quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,178,000 after purchasing an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% during the third quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 44,078 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,591,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% during the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 108,018 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $38,182,000 after purchasing an additional 2,742 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.22 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $361.07. The company had a trading volume of 262,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,707,095. The company has a market cap of $225.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $356.57 and its 200-day moving average is $329.61. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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%. The company’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 posted $2.71 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change 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 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. 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. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted 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. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were 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 approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company 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.