Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,954,594 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 99,954 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.47% of Accenture worth $1,077,245,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $360.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $225.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $360.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $334.25. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Mizuho increased their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $422.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $373.32.

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.