St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Sells 199 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,635 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 199 shares during the quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,279,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC boosted its position in Accenture by 34.1% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the period. Finally, Radnor Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 21.6% in the third quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 22,131 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,823,000 after purchasing an additional 3,930 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $362.76 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $346.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. 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 research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture 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.