Stack Financial Management Inc Has $49.54 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stack Financial Management Inc trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 141,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,441 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 5.6% of Stack Financial Management Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Stack Financial Management Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $49,542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $1.11 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $307.89. 1,320,327 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,408,539. The company has a market capitalization of $206.51 billion, a PE ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $350.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $341.97.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently 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.