Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Radnor Capital Management LLC

Radnor Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,507 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 3,624 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.1% of Radnor Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Radnor Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,511,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Community Trust NA increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. First Community Trust NA now owns 6,570 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,311,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 37.7% during the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 9,616 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,383,000 after purchasing an additional 2,632 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 35,810 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $12,598,000 after purchasing an additional 7,952 shares in the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 54.5% in the fourth quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 5,627 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,980,000 after purchasing an additional 1,984 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $251,607,000 after purchasing an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $349.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,615,878 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,611,574. The firm has a market cap of $218.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $357.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $344.94.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company's 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 in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.