Boston Research & Management Inc. Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Boston Research & Management Inc. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,539 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 51 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.6% of Boston Research & Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Boston Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,521,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $304.32 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $190.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company’s 50 day moving average is $354.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $356.07. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

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.