Troy Asset Management Ltd Lowers Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Troy Asset Management Ltd decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 24.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,355 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 20,972 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 0.8% of Troy Asset Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Troy Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $22,639,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised 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 buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth 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 purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $304.32 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a 50 day moving average of $354.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $355.97. The company has a market cap of $190.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.