Childress Capital Advisors LLC Sells 197 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Childress Capital Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,482 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 197 shares during the period. Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $521,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. GEN Financial Management INC. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $241,000. Optas LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Optas LLC now owns 1,472 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Financial Life Planners bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $179,000. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,460,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brentview Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $4,089,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $385.62 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $241.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $359.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $350.23.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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.