Intrepid Capital Management Inc. Sells 1,270 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 36.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,216 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,270 shares during the period. Intrepid Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $16.42 on Friday, hitting $285.04. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,657,823 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,950,212. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock's 50-day moving average is $349.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $354.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.