Cibc World Market Inc. Has $17.65 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

29 Nov 2023, 12:50 by Scott Moore · The Cerbat Gem

Cibc World Market Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 0.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 57,202 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 225 shares during the quarter. Cibc World Market Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,651,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. United Bank boosted its holdings in Accenture by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,148,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,459,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 104.8% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after buying an additional 225,943 shares during the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $314.00 to $312.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 22nd. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, November 7th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $333.00 price target on the stock. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, November 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen lowered 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $337.26.

Get Our Latest Research Report on ACN

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,816,308.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,816,308.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.48, for a total value of $1,567,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,048,697.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,334 shares of company stock valued at $10,939,027. 0.08% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $335.55 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $242.80 and a 12 month high of $335.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.88, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $312.05 and a 200-day moving average of $311.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 28th. The information technology services provider reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $15.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.60 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 12th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.91%.

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

About Accenture

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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.