Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Lessened by Bourgeon Capital Management LLC

Bourgeon Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,169 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 212 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 2.7% of Bourgeon Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,483,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 367.6% during the fourth quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,075 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,489,000 after acquiring an additional 5,562 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 111,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $39,337,000 after buying an additional 648 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its position in shares of Accenture by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 124,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $43,669,000 after acquiring an additional 11,482 shares in the last quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 103,276 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,331,000 after acquiring an additional 1,601 shares during the period. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 23.4% during the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $999,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,845 shares of company stock worth $5,645,518 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $356.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $222.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $357.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $346.26.

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

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

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.