Intrepid Capital Management Inc. Sells 1,270 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 36.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,216 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,270 shares during the quarter. Intrepid Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $780,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 21,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,406,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Potomac Fund Management Inc. ADV bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,737,000. OV Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. OV Management LLC now owns 2,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $989,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. May Hill Capital LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $273,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $353.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $355.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

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.