Bank of Montreal Can Sells 271,233 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bank of Montreal Can lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,395,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 271,233 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in Accenture were worth $490,923,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Accenture Stock Down 5.4 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $285.04 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $349.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $354.67. The stock has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.00 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.