Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. Sells 869 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 69,587 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 869 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 2.8% of Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $204,895,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Guggenheim upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $352.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $357.59 and its 200-day moving average is $345.36. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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 Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.