Principle Wealth Partners LLC Sells 85 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Principle Wealth Partners LLC lowered its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,564 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 85 shares during the quarter. Principle Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,068,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in Accenture by 17.9% during the third quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 5,198 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,837,000 after buying an additional 788 shares in the last quarter. Willis Investment Counsel boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 115,013 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $40,655,000 after acquiring an additional 486 shares in the last quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas raised its position in Accenture by 2.4% during the third quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas now owns 108,319 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,289,000 after purchasing an additional 2,575 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 3.0% during the third quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 6,984 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,469,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paladin Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $160,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE ACN opened at $386.72 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $362.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $352.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $242.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its 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 company 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

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.