Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC

Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 94.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 625 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 10,732 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $219,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $298.56 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $200.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.07, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $345.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $342.03. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 1.73%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.