Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Independence Bank of Kentucky

Independence Bank of Kentucky cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,786 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 238 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,387,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $384.88 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $359.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $349.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture Company 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.