Spinnaker Trust Sells 153 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Spinnaker Trust trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,237 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 153 shares during the period. Spinnaker Trust’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,189,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kovack Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $264,000. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $262,000. Callan Capital LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 1,294 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 93.7% in the 4th quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 35,163 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,339,000 after purchasing an additional 17,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evolution Advisers Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 71.2% in the 4th quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. now owns 214 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN traded down $0.99 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $308.01. 3,371,848 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $349.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $341.94. The firm has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.93 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.