Vestcor Inc reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 53.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,735 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 20,582 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,269,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $372.09.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on ACN
Insider Activity at Accenture
In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 in the company, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %
Shares of ACN stock traded up $3.48 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $362.98. The stock had a trading volume of 2,157,820 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,692,646. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $360.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $333.42. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.92 billion, a PE 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm 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 company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 51.79%.
Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.
About Accenture
(
Free Report)
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.
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