Soros Fund Management LLC Decreases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Soros Fund Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 62.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 75,852 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 124,359 shares during the period. Soros Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $26,812,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % 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 valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target 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. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of ACN opened at $358.13 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $359.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $332.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.33, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

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.