Delta Asset Management LLC TN Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Delta Asset Management LLC TN reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 38,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 502 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 1.2% of Delta Asset Management LLC TN’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Delta Asset Management LLC TN’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,432,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 30.7% during the third quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,178,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Baldwin Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 12,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,578,000 after buying an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Cynosure Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 1,504 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $532,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 209.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 5,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,042,000 after acquiring an additional 3,910 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

ACN stock opened at $311.38 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $356.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $356.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.