Legacy Trust Sells 45 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Legacy Trust reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,949 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 45 shares during the period. Legacy Trust’s holdings in Accenture were worth $686,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,705,100,000 after purchasing an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $668,974,000 after buying an additional 28,491 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of ACN opened at $375.13 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $234.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $358.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $349.02.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % 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, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

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.