Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Reduced by Tran Capital Management L.P.

Tran Capital Management L.P. lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,064 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 55 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 1.1% of Tran Capital Management L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Tran Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 2.8% during the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the period. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 71.2% in the 2nd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 866 shares during the period. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $233,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.7% during the second quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 3,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,040,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 74.8% in the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 2,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $788,000 after buying an additional 1,111 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.42, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

About Accenture

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.