Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by M. Kraus & Co

M. Kraus & Co trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,275 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 135 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 2.0% of M. Kraus & Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. M. Kraus & Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,781,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. One Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 536.6% in the 2nd quarter. One Capital Management LLC now owns 6,672 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,024,000 after purchasing an additional 5,624 shares in the last quarter. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $235,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 27,632 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,384,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,524,000. Finally, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 103,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,493,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

ACN opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $217.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.48, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

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.