Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Sells 1,070 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,070 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,802,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 50,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,633,000 after buying an additional 799 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,277 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $994,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,481 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,013 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 67.2% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,945 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,107,000 after purchasing an additional 2,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 55,533 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $16,849,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $362.39 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $358.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $330.84.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. 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%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture 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.