Geode Capital Management LLC Sells 220,898 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Geode Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,391,683 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 220,898 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 2.14% of Accenture worth $4,718,978,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.2% during the third quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 34,367 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $12,148,000 after purchasing an additional 3,472 shares during the last quarter. Valued Retirements Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $242,000. Brophy Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $414,000. Raelipskie Partnership increased its position in Accenture by 13.3% during the third quarter. Raelipskie Partnership now owns 3,629 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,283,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 86.6% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,299 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $470,000 after acquiring an additional 603 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.09.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $3.40 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $362.90. The company had a trading volume of 2,136,167 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,692,556. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $360.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $333.42. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $226.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business 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 business posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This is a positive change 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes 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 management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

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.