Freedom Investment Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,734 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,389 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,087,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Accenture by 251.3% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 37,788.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $125,126,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’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 sale, 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 sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

ACN stock opened at $363.20 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $227.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $357.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $330.01.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

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 buy 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 Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

About Accenture

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.