SJS Investment Consulting Inc. Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

SJS Investment Consulting Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 567 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 103 shares during the period. SJS Investment Consulting Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $199,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Accenture stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $357.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $347.30. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.42, a PEG ratio of 3.20 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 (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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.