Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. Sells 829 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 829 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.0% of Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,053,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of ACN opened at $308.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. 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 plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $357.53 and a 200 day moving average of $356.88.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm 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%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % 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 valued at $8,181,753 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Barclays dropped their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a 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 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.91.

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.