Colonial Trust Advisors Has $14.13 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Colonial Trust Advisors lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 134 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 1.3% of Colonial Trust Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $14,130,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 309,970 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $109,050,000 after acquiring an additional 28,379 shares during the period. Phoenix Financial Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 19.7% during the 4th quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 13,361 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,198 shares during the period. F M Investments LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $206,000. Texas Yale Capital Corp. increased its stake in Accenture by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 5,959 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Martingale Asset Management L P increased its stake in Accenture by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 80,136 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,191,000 after acquiring an additional 12,270 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Up 6.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $300.20 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $188.02 billion, a PE ratio of 25.18, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $340.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $352.78.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.