Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Townsquare Capital LLC

Townsquare Capital LLC reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,212 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 6,289 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $41,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN opened at $363.20 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $227.06 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s fifty day moving average is $357.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $330.01. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate 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.