Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by First Business Financial Services Inc.

First Business Financial Services Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,229 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 410 shares during the quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,495,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted 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 valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % 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, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.10 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $226.37 billion, a PE ratio of 31.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $354.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $326.48.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business 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 $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim raised their price objective 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. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

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.