Old Port Advisors Reduces Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Old Port Advisors cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 25.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 340 shares during the quarter. Old Port Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $348,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $348.82 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.29 billion, a PE ratio of 30.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $357.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $341.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.