Archer Investment Corp Sells 90 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Archer Investment Corp reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,278 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 90 shares during the quarter. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,150,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 704,657 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd 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 buying an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a 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. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,750 shares of company stock worth $14,543,436. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.86 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $314.80. 1,636,572 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,352,313. The company has a market capitalization of $211.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $358.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $342.14. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.