Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Has $36.78 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 104,542 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 19,855 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,777,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 2.8% in the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Accenture by 10.5% during the second quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 248,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,368,000 after purchasing an additional 23,537 shares during the last quarter. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 30.2% during the 2nd quarter. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 18,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,492,000 after buying an additional 4,196 shares during the last quarter. Dundas Partners LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.4% in the second quarter. Dundas Partners LLP now owns 126,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,411,000 after buying an additional 3,026 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Decatur Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 2.8% during the second quarter. Decatur Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,974,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Up 1.0 %

Accenture stock opened at $362.76 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market capitalization of $227.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $357.18 and its 200 day moving average is $346.75. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.