Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Sells 1,224 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 24.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,881 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,224 shares during the period. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,372,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Eads & Heald Wealth Management purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $449,000. Campbell Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. Campbell Wealth Management now owns 862 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $305,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 47.4% in the 3rd quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 4,602 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,627,000 after buying an additional 1,479 shares during the period. Interchange Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.9% during the third quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 882 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $313,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.9% in the third quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 13,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,645,000 after acquiring an additional 1,396 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ACN opened at $345.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $352.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $324.12.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program 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 programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Ten 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 stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.