Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Trimmed by St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,635 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 199 shares during the period. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after purchasing an additional 471,792 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after acquiring an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $362.76 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $357.18 and its 200-day moving average is $346.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $227.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

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.