Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Reduced by Dover Advisors LLC

Dover Advisors LLC lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 21.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,434 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 945 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.6% of Dover Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Dover Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 40.3% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

ACN traded down $0.99 on Friday, reaching $308.01. The stock had a trading volume of 3,371,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. The company has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day moving average of $342.35. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% 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.