Financial Advocates Investment Management Trims Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Financial Advocates Investment Management trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,583 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 599 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,612,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $386.71 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a 50-day moving average of $361.34 and a 200-day moving average of $351.40. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $242.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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 was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.