Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Cut by Beacon Capital Management LLC

Beacon Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 478 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 77 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $168,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Congress Asset Management Co. grew its position in Accenture by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 68,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $24,026,000 after buying an additional 886 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $191,000. Aveo Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,304 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 4,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,447,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BXM Wealth LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $571,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

Accenture stock opened at $387.99 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $365.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $354.11. The firm has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.