Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Tower Bridge Advisors

Tower Bridge Advisors trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 64,620 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,695 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 2.4% of Tower Bridge Advisors' holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Tower Bridge Advisors' holdings in Accenture were worth $22,842,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $1,040,000. M&G PLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the period. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 70.6% during the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $12,581,000 after buying an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in Accenture by 18.7% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $8.50 on Friday, reaching $353.57. 3,624,539 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,555,959. The company's 50-day moving average price is $355.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $327.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.04 billion, a PE ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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.