S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,020 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 308 shares during the quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,414,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. One Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 536.6% during the 2nd quarter. One Capital Management LLC now owns 6,672 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,024,000 after purchasing an additional 5,624 shares during the last quarter. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $235,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the second quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 27,632 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,384,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $1,524,000. Finally, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. raised its stake in Accenture by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 103,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,493,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock 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 firm’s 50 day moving average price is $357.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $344.94. The firm has a market cap of $217.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 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 analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently 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.