D Orazio & Associates Inc. Trims Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

D Orazio & Associates Inc. decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,674 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 134 shares during the quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 75,776 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $26,785,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the period. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc increased its stake in Accenture by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 6,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,276,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,040,000. Finally, Simmons Bank increased its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 11,651 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,118,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $6.37 on Wednesday, reaching $366.98. The stock had a trading volume of 782,490 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,711,407. The company has a market cap of $229.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $354.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $326.17. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in 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 plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.