Court Place Advisors LLC Sells 70 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Court Place Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,195 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 70 shares during the period. Court Place Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,483,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 54.6% during the 3rd quarter. Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. now owns 1,643 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $581,000 after purchasing an additional 580 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.3% during the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 16,556 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,852,000 after buying an additional 1,120 shares during the period. Coerente Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Freedom Day Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the third quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 9,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,383,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $845,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of ACN traded up $0.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $364.75. 260,427 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,713,375. The business has a 50 day moving average of $348.78 and a 200 day moving average of $322.52. The company has a market capitalization of $228.59 billion, a PE ratio of 33.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock 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 generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 54.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

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.