Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Decreases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 90,276 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 937 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.4% of Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $31,679,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lyell Wealth Management LP acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $207,000. Bailard Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 56,133 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,697,000 after buying an additional 1,429 shares during the period. BIP Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture by 532.5% during the fourth quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 4,548 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,596,000 after buying an additional 3,829 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 21,753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,633,000 after purchasing an additional 2,374 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $349,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $1.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $307.89. 1,774,411 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,414,397. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $350.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.97. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $206.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim began coverage on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Redburn Atlantic boosted their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

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.