Argent Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Argent Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 81,141 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,628 shares during the quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $28,545,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE ACN traded up $2.67 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $350.92. 2,011,561 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,552,089. The company has a market cap of $219.60 billion, a PE ratio of 29.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 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 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $357.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $344.97.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company 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 company posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.