Cullinan Associates Inc. Has $2.93 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cullinan Associates Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,324 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 963 shares during the period. Cullinan Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $385.62 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $241.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.35, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $359.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $350.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.