Perkins Coie Trust Co Has $3.51 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Perkins Coie Trust Co trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,977 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,256 shares during the quarter. Perkins Coie Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,510,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Clarius Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Clarius Group LLC now owns 5,576 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,962,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,937 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,792,000 after buying an additional 886 shares during the last quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 911 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $320,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,258 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $443,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. Finally, Smith Salley Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management now owns 53,562 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $18,843,000 after acquiring an additional 1,204 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $352.33 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $357.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $345.36. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.