Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Cut by Kennebec Savings Bank

Kennebec Savings Bank reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 23.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 162 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 51 shares during the period. Kennebec Savings Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $57,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Advisory Alpha LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 25.4% during the second quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 968 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $294,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $675,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 38.0% in the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 379,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $115,011,000 after purchasing an additional 104,325 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.1% in the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 5,661 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,718,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at $1,043,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $380.78 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $358.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $349.20. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $238.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.