Peachtree Investment Partners LLC Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Peachtree Investment Partners LLC lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,699 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 273 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.5% of Peachtree Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Peachtree Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $285.01 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $178.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $347.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $354.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

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.