WP Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

WP Advisors LLC lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 513 shares during the period. WP Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,743,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Accenture Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $353.57 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $355.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $327.46. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays increased 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. Citigroup increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by 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.