New World Advisors LLC Sells 65 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New World Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,225 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 65 shares during the quarter. New World Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $214,000. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 41.6% in the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 12,216 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,318,000 after buying an additional 3,586 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in Accenture by 2.1% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 76,256 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $26,954,000 after buying an additional 1,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carret Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,001,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of ACN traded down $3.43 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $360.80. The stock had a trading volume of 2,129,390 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,722,404. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $350.24 and a 200 day moving average of $322.94. The company has a market cap of $226.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

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.