Stratos Investment Management LLC Reduces Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stratos Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,817 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 106 shares during the quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $991,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 127,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $45,104,000 after buying an additional 7,791 shares in the last quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 26.8% in the third quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,122 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Security National Bank increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.2% in the third quarter. Security National Bank now owns 17,188 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,076,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $227,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Accenture by 18.7% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 654 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $231,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % 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 stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of ACN opened at $391.98 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $392.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $360.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $350.64. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $245.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company 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 increased their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

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.