Trust Co. of Oklahoma Trims Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Trust Co. of Oklahoma cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 12,557 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 398 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.4% of Trust Co. of Oklahoma’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Trust Co. of Oklahoma’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,417,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 1,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $375,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 6,712 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,353,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Wendell David Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc. now owns 28,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,131,000 after acquiring an additional 675 shares during the period. Finally, Traynor Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $251,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $359.08 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.71 billion, a PE ratio of 30.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $357.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $346.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.