SouthState Corp Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

SouthState Corp increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,296 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,279 shares during the period. SouthState Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $12,830,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Barclays increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $1.16 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $353.95. The company had a trading volume of 2,411,063 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,721,723. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $221.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $355.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $327.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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