Great Diamond Partners LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Great Diamond Partners LLC reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,917 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,096 shares during the period. Great Diamond Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

ACN opened at $384.88 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. 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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $359.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $349.42. The company has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24.

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. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.