Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Soltis Investment Advisors LLC

Soltis Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 68.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 16,902 shares during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,744,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 15,609 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $5,517,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.8% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 25,293 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $8,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,840 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD boosted its holdings in Accenture by 29.4% in the third quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 964 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $341,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 34,367 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $12,148,000 after purchasing an additional 3,472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valued Retirements Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $242,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.09.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $0.95 on Wednesday, reaching $363.85. 1,541,254 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,687,829. The firm has a market capitalization of $227.47 billion, a PE ratio of 31.98, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $360.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $333.86.

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

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

About Accenture

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.