KLCM Advisors Inc. Sells 350 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

KLCM Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,189 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 350 shares during the period. KLCM Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 101,214.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,141,000 after acquiring an additional 4,036,414 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Accenture by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Accenture by 7.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 2.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $313.94. 2,900,382 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,239,222. The company has a fifty day moving average of $358.39 and a 200 day moving average of $342.14. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.