Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Lakewood Asset Management LLC

Lakewood Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,549 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 60 shares during the period. Lakewood Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $897,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on ACN. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $350.00 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $219.03 billion, a PE ratio of 29.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $344.94. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.