McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,815 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,860,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.5% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 92,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,938,000 after acquiring an additional 2,211 shares during the period. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 340.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 652 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $198,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 31.8% during the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 15,246 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,626,000 after purchasing an additional 3,676 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $303,000. Finally, Greenvale Capital LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $75,852,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. 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 price target of $383.74.

Accenture Trading Up 1.5 %

ACN opened at $378.61 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $236.93 billion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. 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 plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $358.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $349.02.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.