Summit Global Investments Trims Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Summit Global Investments lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 51.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,735 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 6,169 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments’ holdings in Accenture were worth $2,017,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. UBS Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.05.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $305.17 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a fifty day moving average of $359.16 and a 200 day moving average of $357.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $190.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 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 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

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.