Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Cuts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,282 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 215 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $243,000. Capital Investment Counsel LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Counsel LLC now owns 17,784 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,256,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 127.1% in the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,855 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,004,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Axiom Financial Strategies LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC now owns 868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $378.61 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a 50-day moving average of $357.77 and a 200 day moving average of $348.54. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $236.93 billion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

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.