Childress Capital Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Childress Capital Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,482 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 197 shares during the quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $521,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GEN Financial Management INC. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $241,000. Optas LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 1,472 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $179,000. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,460,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brentview Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,089,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE ACN opened at $385.62 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $241.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.35, a PEG ratio of 3.43 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 has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a 50 day moving average of $359.56 and a 200-day moving average of $350.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm 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 company posted $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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.