Coston McIsaac & Partners Lowers Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Coston McIsaac & Partners lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 520 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 86 shares during the period. Coston McIsaac & Partners’ holdings in Accenture were worth $182,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $375.13 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $358.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $349.02. 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 $234.75 billion, a PE ratio of 31.47, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture Company 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.