Cynosure Group LLC Sells 299 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cynosure Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 19.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,205 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 299 shares during the period. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $424,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $316.36 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $352.46 and a 200-day moving average of $355.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $198.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.54, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company 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 of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.