Centric Wealth Management Has $512,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Centric Wealth Management lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,437 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 45 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $512,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE ACN opened at $362.16 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $358.15 and a 200-day moving average of $330.46. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $226.41 billion, a PE ratio of 31.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

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.