Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Sells 395 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 92,827 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 395 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 1.5% of Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $32,656,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,452 shares of company stock worth $5,934,343 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

ACN stock opened at $352.33 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $357.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.