Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stanley Laman Group Ltd. trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 939 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 80 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $330,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price target on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN traded down $1.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $307.93. The company had a trading volume of 3,371,677 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,435,283. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $341.94. The stock has a market cap of $206.54 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Accenture 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.