KLR Investment Advisors LLC Sells 152 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

KLR Investment Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,879 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 152 shares during the period. KLR Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $599,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,315,832,000 after buying an additional 96,414 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,098,000 after buying an additional 1,542 shares during the period. Chicago Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 284.7% during the fourth quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,449,000 after purchasing an additional 9,382 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 33,484.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $199,167,000 after purchasing an additional 565,882 shares during the period. Finally, VELA Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the third quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 3,681 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $0.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $308.01. 3,371,848 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.