Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 80.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,439 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 5,801 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $437,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $364.64.

Accenture Stock Down 1.7 %

ACN opened at $349.70 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $333.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $320.40. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.