Conning Inc. Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Conning Inc. lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,391 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 44 shares during the quarter. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,552,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 196.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $342,483,000 after purchasing an additional 654,807 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was 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 owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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. Mizuho increased their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

ACN stock opened at $345.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $352.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.12. The company has a market cap of $216.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. 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 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.