Vestcor Inc Sells 20,582 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vestcor Inc reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 53.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,735 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 20,582 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,269,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Bank of America upped their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 22.13 % 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 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $359.65 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $224.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $360.26 and a 200 day moving average of $333.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share 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 generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.