Palisade Asset Management LLC Sells 415 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Palisade Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 32,566 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 415 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 1.3% of Palisade Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Palisade Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,428,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $1.33 on Wednesday, hitting $311.99. 2,280,230 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,489,347. The stock has a market capitalization of $209.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $340.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.35. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.