Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Decreased by First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 33,738 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,187 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 2.6% of First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,839,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted 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 worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 40.3% in the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Redburn Atlantic boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $307.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $206.54 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $349.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.94. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 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 presently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 sold a total of 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.