International Assets Investment Management LLC Sells 508,913 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

International Assets Investment Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 99.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,445 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 508,913 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $504,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Range Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $612,000. One Wealth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $771,000. Norway Savings Bank boosted its stake in Accenture by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 4,078 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,435,000 after buying an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 18,630 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,554,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Finally, Spartan Planning & Wealth Management bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $419,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2 %

ACN traded down $7.80 during trading on Friday, hitting $349.93. The stock had a trading volume of 2,829,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,638,580. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $344.03. The firm has a market cap of $218.98 billion, a PE ratio of 30.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on ACN. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.04.

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.