Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stanley Laman Group Ltd. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 939 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 80 shares during the quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $330,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,298 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $706,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP raised its position in Accenture by 0.4% in the third quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP now owns 116,006 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,627,000 after acquiring an additional 482 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,453 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,982,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 124.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 3,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,103,000 after purchasing an additional 1,992 shares during the period. Finally, Jmac Enterprises LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC now owns 2,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $676,000 after acquiring an additional 662 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $1.07 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $307.93. The company had a trading volume of 3,371,677 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,435,283. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $349.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $341.94. The firm has a market cap of $206.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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. 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Accenture 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.