Perigon Wealth Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Perigon Wealth Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,570 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,506 shares during the quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $9,685,648,000 after purchasing an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in Accenture by 1.5% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $668,974,000 after purchasing an additional 28,491 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $6.36 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $380.78. 2,218,531 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,751,011. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $358.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $349.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $238.29 billion, a PE ratio of 31.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 1.55%. Accenture's payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $383.74.

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.