Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Lessened by Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC

Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 54 shares during the period. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $343,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. LVW Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.4% in the first quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co increased its position in Accenture by 17.3% during the first quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 10,150 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,518,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its position in Accenture by 16.6% during the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 609,226 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $211,164,000 after buying an additional 86,848 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Accenture by 13.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 7.1% during the first quarter. Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors LLC now owns 600 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $208,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of ACN opened at $360.80 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $226.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $350.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $322.93.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on ACN. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler raised 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 report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was 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 link. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was 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 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 directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.