Leavell Investment Management Inc. Sells 517 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,082 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 517 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,547,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Portfolio Design Labs LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC now owns 10,080 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,546,000 after purchasing an additional 2,193 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,900 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,020,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Single Point Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $1,658,000. Sovran Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,009,000. Finally, Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 7,874 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,770,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $388.85 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. 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 50-day moving average of $363.57 and a 200 day moving average of $353.18. The firm has a market cap of $243.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.62, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.