Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 29,910 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,354 shares during the period. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,522,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,169,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in Accenture by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $293.51 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $314.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.55. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.83 billion, a PE ratio of 24.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $377.82.

About Accenture

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.