Montecito Bank & Trust Sells 595 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Montecito Bank & Trust reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 595 shares during the period. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the third 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 during the period. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho increased their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $356.13 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $352.96 and its 200-day moving average is $324.80. The firm has a market cap of $222.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders 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 1.66%. This is an increase 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 of Directors has approved a stock buyback program 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

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.