Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Sells 5,048 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 69,017 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 5,048 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its stake in Accenture by 3.1% in the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 5,507 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,671,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 383 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $116,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Accenture by 151.6% in the 2nd quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 2,112 shares in the last quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $2,969,000. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 61.0% during the second quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 1,691 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $513,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 1.3 %

Accenture stock opened at $362.66 on Friday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a 50 day moving average of $359.88 and a 200-day moving average of $332.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.72 billion, a PE ratio of 31.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase 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%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho upped their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $372.09.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade 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 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

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.