Lafayette Investments Inc. Sells 153 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lafayette Investments Inc. lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 13,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 153 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 1.0% of Lafayette Investments Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,617,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.4% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,169,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the period. Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,555,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Up 2.0 %

Accenture stock opened at $289.93 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $181.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $334.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $351.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,921 shares of company stock valued at $9,876,619 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.