Horan Capital Advisors LLC. Has $4.26 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Horan Capital Advisors LLC. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,058 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 125 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 1.4% of Horan Capital Advisors LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Horan Capital Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group boosted their target price 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. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

ACN stock opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $355.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $327.83. The firm has a market cap of $220.55 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost 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 yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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

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.