Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Everence Capital Management Inc.

Everence Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 25.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 26,039 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 8,730 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 0.6% of Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,160,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 28th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $4.27 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $353.09. The stock had a trading volume of 523,751 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,346,401. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $220.96 billion, a PE ratio of 30.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $341.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.