Decatur Capital Management Inc. Sells 83 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Decatur Capital Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,920 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 83 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.3% of Decatur Capital Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Decatur Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,827,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 101,214.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,078,141,000 after buying an additional 4,036,414 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after buying an additional 2,163,582 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Accenture by 21.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,535,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,297,009,000 after buying an additional 2,060,646 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $426,367,000. Institutional investors own 70.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total value of $1,887,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,622 shares in the company, valued at $48,816,308.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total value of $1,887,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,816,308.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.48, for a total value of $1,567,020.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 20,265 shares in the company, valued at $6,048,697.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,334 shares of company stock worth $10,939,027 over the last 90 days. 0.08% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $356.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $314.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.22.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $5.40 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $321.03. 314,888 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,237,104. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $309.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $306.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.31, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $242.80 and a 12-month high of $330.43.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 28th. The information technology services provider reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.06. Accenture had a return on equity of 29.74% and a net margin of 10.72%. The firm had revenue of $15.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 28th 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 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 12th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.91%.

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.