JNBA Financial Advisors Has $305,000 Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

JNBA Financial Advisors lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 862 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 140 shares during the quarter. JNBA Financial Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $35,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 57.1% during the 1st quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 110 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, 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 value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of 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 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture 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 owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $356.13 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $352.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $324.80. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 1.66%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.