Haverford Financial Services Inc. Trims Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Haverford Financial Services Inc. reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 34,849 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 5,631 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 3.5% of Haverford Financial Services Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Haverford Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,318,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 3,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,248,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 28,991 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,048,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP boosted its position in Accenture by 31.3% during the first quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 6,367 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,207,000 after buying an additional 1,517 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.7% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 107,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,230,000 after buying an additional 1,778 shares during the period. Finally, Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,198 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,228,000 after acquiring an additional 228 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 subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $2.45 during trading on Friday, reaching $347.27. 227,799 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,717,385. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $352.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $323.82. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 33,107 shares of company stock valued at $12,275,914. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture 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.