Solidarity Wealth LLC Sells 8,610 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Solidarity Wealth LLC reduced its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 91.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 759 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 8,610 shares during the quarter. Solidarity Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 13.3% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,685 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $584,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% in the first quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 3,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,248,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 28,991 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,048,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $5,099,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on ACN. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $346.59 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $351.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $323.68. The company has a market capitalization of $216.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.