Linscomb Wealth Inc. Sells 508 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Linscomb Wealth Inc. trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 35,520 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 508 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 0.6% of Linscomb Wealth Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Linscomb Wealth Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,556,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 5.0% during the 1st 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. Wintrust Investments LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC now owns 4,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,597,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the first quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 114.2% in the first quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 7,327 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,540,000 after acquiring an additional 3,907 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $19,007,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 2.8 %

ACN traded down $10.00 during trading on Friday, reaching $352.07. 941,574 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,718,584. The company’s 50-day moving average is $355.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $326.73. The company has a market cap of $220.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

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.