Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Paladin Advisory Group LLC

Paladin Advisory Group LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,240 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 221 shares during the quarter. Paladin Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Schear Investment Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,651 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,281,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 18,371 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,447,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 1,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $534,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. HTLF Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $440,000. Finally, Fonville Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $618,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $0.88 during trading on Friday, hitting $316.88. The stock had a trading volume of 3,381,158 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,390,528. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $356.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.77. The company has a market capitalization of $212.54 billion, a PE ratio of 28.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 35,500 shares of company stock valued at $12,276,123. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.