Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Has $187,000 Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 48.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 529 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 491 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $187,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Tsfg LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $362.23 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $357.61 and its 200-day moving average is $330.24. The firm has a market cap of $226.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Piper Sandler raised shares of 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 research report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.