Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Harbour Capital Advisors LLC

Harbour Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,569 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 45 shares during the period. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,617,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded up $0.44 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $350.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,171,645 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,489,598. The company’s 50-day moving average is $357.82 and its 200-day moving average is $344.30. The firm has a market cap of $219.17 billion, a PE ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.