Mizuho Securities USA LLC Has $14.36 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,618 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 7,860 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $14,358,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Accenture by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,999,056,000 after buying an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. This represents a 17.13 % 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 ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $8.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $353.57. 3,624,539 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,555,959. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $355.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $327.26. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $221.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture's payout ratio is 51.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Mizuho lifted their target price 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, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

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.