Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Sells 26,585 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 584,943 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 26,585 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 0.6% of Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Accenture worth $206,766,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.37 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $358.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $331.17. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $226.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.70, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend 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 was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.