Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC Sells 217 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,861 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 217 shares during the quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $655,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 2,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $860,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 12,655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,452,000 after acquiring an additional 868 shares during the period. Range Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $612,000. One Wealth Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $771,000. Finally, Norway Savings Bank grew its position in Accenture by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 4,078 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Bank of America upped their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $4.85 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $352.88. 494,933 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,322,862. The stock has a market capitalization of $220.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $343.47.

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

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 given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.