Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 54,710 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 10,574 shares during the quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Qsemble Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $1,597,000. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in Accenture by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,666,734 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $582,857,000 after acquiring an additional 145,294 shares during the period. Associated Banc Corp grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Associated Banc Corp now owns 1,180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Diversified LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the third quarter. Diversified LLC now owns 1,844 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 344.7% during the third quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 15,890 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,593,000 after purchasing an additional 12,317 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $361.29 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $225.86 billion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The business has a 50-day moving average of $356.57 and a 200-day moving average of $329.61.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % 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, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.