IVC Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 502 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

IVC Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 42.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 675 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 502 shares during the quarter. IVC Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $239,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $360.80 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $350.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $322.93. The company has a market cap of $226.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.