Bell Bank Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bell Bank cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,809 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 36 shares during the quarter. Bell Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $639,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.0% during the first quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,275 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,215,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Private Portfolio Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Private Portfolio Partners LLC now owns 926 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $321,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Leo Wealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 5.9% in the first quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 2,377 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $821,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,117 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,279,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the period. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 8,145 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,823,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $370.34 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $231.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.40, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s fifty day moving average is $354.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $326.17. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.