Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.

Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 30.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,566 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,870 shares during the quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,345,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the period. Finally, M&G PLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 34.1% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after buying an additional 74,438 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

ACN stock opened at $384.88 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $240.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $359.56 and a 200-day moving average of $349.88.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.