Knowledge Leaders Capital LLC Has $1.90 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Knowledge Leaders Capital LLC trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 174 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 3.0% of Knowledge Leaders Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Knowledge Leaders Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,904,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd 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 currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.99 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $308.01. The company had a trading volume of 3,371,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $341.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction 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 approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price target on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.