Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Sells 30,180 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,491,513 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 30,180 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned approximately 0.24% of Accenture worth $527,220,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 94.3% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 11,393 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,027,000 after acquiring an additional 5,530 shares in the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $745,000. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 9,688 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,425,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on ACN. Guggenheim upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $4.59 on Tuesday, reaching $361.89. 1,104,799 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,710,494. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $353.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.80. The stock has a market cap of $226.24 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last three months. 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.