Hartline Investment Corp Has $2.98 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Hartline Investment Corp trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,490 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. Hartline Investment Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 65.7% during the 4th quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 6,845 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,402,000 after buying an additional 2,713 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $63,000. Cumberland Partners Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 64,012 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,791,000 after purchasing an additional 3,652 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,241,000. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $310,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. 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 report on Monday, March 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Accenture stock traded down $3.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $313.54. 4,133,133 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,408,188. The company has a market cap of $210.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $353.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $342.40. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.