Sentry Investment Management LLC Sells 355 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sentry Investment Management LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 355 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,160,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. United Bank lifted its stake in Accenture by 6.3% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the period. Weitz Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.3% in the first quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares during the period. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.6% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 104.8% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after purchasing an additional 225,943 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $1.16 during trading on Monday, hitting $314.24. The stock had a trading volume of 1,779,959 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,338,002. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $360.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.00. The firm has a market cap of $210.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,884,051.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group raised their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Guggenheim initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price target for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.