Fmr LLC Trims Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fmr LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 25.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,054,626 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,354,432 shares during the period. Fmr LLC owned about 0.65% of Accenture worth $1,433,229,000 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 ACN. Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. XML Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the first quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 3,253 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,127,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth about $179,000. Advisory Resource Group increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 15.4% during the first quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 2,330 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $808,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.1% during the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 38,914 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,488,000 after purchasing an additional 2,924 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $363.20 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $357.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $330.01. The company has a market cap of $227.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

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.