Dakota Wealth Management Cuts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Dakota Wealth Management cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 36,592 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 406 shares during the quarter. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,935,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. DT Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 4.5% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,946 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,041,000 after buying an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 25,853 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,139,000 after acquiring an additional 1,160 shares during the period. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Harvey Investment Co. LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $276,000. Finally, Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $218,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $364.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $228.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.35, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $348.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $322.52.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113. 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.