Fiduciary Trust Co Acquires 577 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fiduciary Trust Co lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 42,041 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 577 shares during the quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,861,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.23 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $226.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $330.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict 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 issued a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.