CCLA Investment Management Lowers Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

CCLA Investment Management reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 267,710 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 14,069 shares during the quarter. CCLA Investment Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $94,209,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.48, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research 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 stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

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.