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

Janney Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 319 shares during the quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lincoln National Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 8,926 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.7% in the first quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 19,012 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,590,000 after buying an additional 1,352 shares during the period. Pegasus Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the first quarter. Pegasus Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,503 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,413,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Suncoast Equity Management grew its stake in Accenture by 3.1% during the first quarter. Suncoast Equity Management now owns 130,999 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $45,406,000 after buying an additional 3,951 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 99,278 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,409,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture 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 in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America increased their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $345.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $352.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $324.12. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $216.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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 1.71%. 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.