Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 176,052 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,863 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 2.4% of Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $61,778,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded up $3.37 on Friday, reaching $303.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,767,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $203.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $342.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Redburn Atlantic lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Eight equities research 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by 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.