First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Trims Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 60,727 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 157 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 0.3% of First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest position. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $21,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,036,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 71.2% during the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $632,000 after buying an additional 866 shares during the last quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at $233,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.7% during the second quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 3,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,040,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 74.8% during the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 2,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $788,000 after buying an additional 1,111 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $362.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.30. The firm has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

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.