Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Sells 7,920 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 44,793 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 7,920 shares during the quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,833,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased 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 worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 108.0% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC increased its position in Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business's 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE ACN traded up $4.77 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $361.84. The company's stock had a trading volume of 178,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,709,676. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $356.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $328.39. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture's revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 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.