Old Port Advisors Lowers Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Old Port Advisors cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 25.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 340 shares during the period. Old Port Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $348,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. 1ST Source Bank raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth $473,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $8,920,000. Castellan Group grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Castellan Group now owns 8,165 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,886,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. 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 report on Tuesday, September 17th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.23.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % 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, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $348.82 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $357.73 and a 200-day moving average of $341.35. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $218.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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

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.