Frisch Financial Group Inc. Sells 1,008 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Frisch Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 63.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 589 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,008 shares during the quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $208,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,165,000 after acquiring an additional 712,400 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 37,788.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $359.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $360.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $333.42. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $224.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. 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 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Bank of America upped their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $372.09.

About Accenture

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.