Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,853 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,072 shares during the quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 5.0% in the third quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 2,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $730,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,385 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,034,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares in the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA grew its stake in Accenture by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 8,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,164,000 after buying an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc increased its position in Accenture by 49.3% during the 3rd quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 2,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $890,000 after buying an additional 832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.7% in the third quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,003 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,829,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $360.74 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $339.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $320.48. 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 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The trade was 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 other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company 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.