Intrepid Capital Management Inc. Sells 1,270 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 36.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,216 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,270 shares during the period. Intrepid Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 21,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,406,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Potomac Fund Management Inc. ADV purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,737,000. OV Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. OV Management LLC now owns 2,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $989,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. May Hill Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $273,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

ACN opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $353.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $355.55. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $196.35 billion, a PE ratio of 26.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.