Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,318 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 267 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,485,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its stake in Accenture by 3.8% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 55,909 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,763,000 after purchasing an additional 2,046 shares during the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,492,000 after buying an additional 449 shares during the last quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $256,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 6.6% in the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 13,865 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,901,000 after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 108,512 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,357,000 after purchasing an additional 3,452 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $376.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $236.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a PEG 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $345.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $321.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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 given 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 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.21%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,693 shares of company stock worth $8,282,341. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

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.