Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI Sells 1,008 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,008 shares during the period. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,871,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Heartland Bank & Trust Co grew its holdings in Accenture by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co now owns 936 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $329,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 50,146 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,641,000 after purchasing an additional 3,685 shares during the period. United Asset Strategies Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 4,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,493,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 18,369 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,462,000 after buying an additional 931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,001 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,246,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,196 shares of company stock worth $3,226,918 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.65 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $348.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth 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.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

About Accenture

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.