Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. Sells 160,610 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,238,332 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 160,610 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 11.3% of Comgest Global Investors S.A.S.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. owned about 0.36% of Accenture worth $791,206,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 22.4% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 674,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $238,527,000 after acquiring an additional 123,583 shares during the period. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 1.8% during the third quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 23,983 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,478,000 after acquiring an additional 420 shares during the period. Nicollet Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.9% during the third quarter. Nicollet Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,399 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,736,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the period. Coastline Trust Co raised its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the third quarter. Coastline Trust Co now owns 15,758 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,570,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the period. Finally, Northcape Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.6% during the third quarter. Northcape Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,995 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,119,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $8.50 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $353.57. The stock had a trading volume of 3,624,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,730,625. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $355.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $327.08. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.24 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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