Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Has $3.68 Billion Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,413,097 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 499,865 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.1% of Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 1.67% of Accenture worth $3,680,822,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $377,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.8% in the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 13,014 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,600,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 8.7% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 532,534 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $188,240,000 after acquiring an additional 42,753 shares in the last quarter. Tradewinds LLC. boosted its position in Accenture by 4.0% during the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, John G Ullman & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $218,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $357.04 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $356.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $328.39. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $223.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.