Leavell Investment Management Inc. Sells 517 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,082 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 517 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,547,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

ACN opened at $388.85 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $363.57 and a 200 day moving average of $353.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $243.34 billion, a PE ratio of 32.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets raised 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. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 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.