Peloton Wealth Strategists Has $1.48 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Peloton Wealth Strategists lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,805 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 115 shares during the quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists’ holdings in Accenture were worth $1,483,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Ashburton Jersey Ltd acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $143,000. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,695 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,140,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the last quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,029 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $626,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 33,713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,403,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FCF Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 31.6% in the second quarter. FCF Advisors LLC now owns 9,981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,080,000 after buying an additional 2,395 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $332.00 to $322.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 29th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Barclays raised their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 29th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $358.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, September 18th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $337.26.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $0.46 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $328.29. 118,226 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,231,759. The firm has a market cap of $206.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $242.80 and a 1-year high of $330.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $309.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $308.18.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 12th were given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 11th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.91%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.68, for a total transaction of $2,832,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 26,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,442,864.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.48, for a total transaction of $1,567,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,265 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,048,697.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.68, for a total value of $2,832,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 26,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,442,864.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,334 shares of company stock valued at $10,939,027 in the last quarter. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.