Fort L.P. Sells 38 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

by · The Markets Daily

Fort L.P. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 835 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 38 shares during the quarter. Fort L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $295,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% during 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 grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 80,514 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the first 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. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ACN traded up $0.85 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $345.67. 2,579,809 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,728,620. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $352.34 and its 200-day moving average is $324.12. The stock 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 – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded 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. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Read Our Latest Research Report on ACN

Accenture Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

See Also

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