Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Decreased by Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc.

Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 232,623 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,674 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 2.6% of Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $81,834,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,705,100,000 after buying an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $1.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $352.33. The company had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $357.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $345.65. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture's payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was 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. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.