Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Decreases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 28,638 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 95 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 1.7% of Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,123,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Tsfg LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE: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 stock has a market capitalization of $226.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $358.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $330.84.

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 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.