Simmons Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Simmons Bank lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,205 shares during the period. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,969,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Centric Wealth Management bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $561,000. Charles Schwab Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $212,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,556,676,000 after buying an additional 68,635 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 117,425 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,206,000 after buying an additional 4,341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 5,880 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,063,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 1.5 %

Accenture stock traded up $4.60 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $310.66. 2,483,561 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,501,316. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $340.17 and its 200-day moving average is $342.35. The stock has a market cap of $208.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted 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. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by 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.