Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Martin Investment Management LLC

Martin Investment Management LLC trimmed its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 478 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 2.0% of Martin Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Martin Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,425,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 12.5% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 582,894 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $206,097,000 after acquiring an additional 64,553 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Accenture by 2.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,847,496 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $653,043,000 after buying an additional 50,995 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $1,866,000. Intrepid Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Intrepid Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,486 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IHT Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 15.5% in the third quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,757 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,797,000 after buying an additional 1,442 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

ACN opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $353.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $355.55. The stock has a market cap of $196.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.