Wellington Management Group LLP Sells 23,945 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wellington Management Group LLP lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,914,778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 23,945 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 0.6% of Wellington Management Group LLP's portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Wellington Management Group LLP owned 1.59% of Accenture worth $3,504,676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.09.

Accenture Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $4.57 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $362.70. 2,331,449 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,697,060. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The company's 50 day moving average price is $359.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $332.26. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

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

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

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.