Coston McIsaac & Partners Trims Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Coston McIsaac & Partners cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 520 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 86 shares during the period. Coston McIsaac & Partners’ holdings in Accenture were worth $182,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Busey Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Busey Bank now owns 72,670 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,565,000 after purchasing an additional 1,042 shares in the last quarter. Abel Hall LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $208,000. Foster & Motley Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 17,613 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,196,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Finally, Orrstown Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 58.1% during the fourth quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,398 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

ACN opened at $375.13 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $234.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.47, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $358.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $349.02. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

About Accenture

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.