Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Lowered by Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,638 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 95 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.7% of Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,123,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 489,830 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $173,145,000 after purchasing an additional 74,825 shares during the period. Isthmus Partners LLC raised its position in Accenture by 0.8% during the third quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 34,239 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,103,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Accenture by 94.3% during the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 12,855 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,495,000 after acquiring an additional 6,238 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 11.7% during the third quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 34,497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,194,000 after acquiring an additional 3,602 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Accenture by 378.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’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 value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. 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. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $362.39 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $358.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $330.84. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $226.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25.

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, 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.