First Pacific Financial Sells 48 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Pacific Financial lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,581 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 48 shares during the period. First Pacific Financial’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,257,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. IFG Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 10,320 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,621,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 raised its position in shares of Accenture by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 now owns 3,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,299,000 after purchasing an additional 678 shares during the last quarter. jvl associates llc raised its holdings in Accenture by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. jvl associates llc now owns 3,916 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,374,000 after buying an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 3,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after buying an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co of the South bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,582,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

Accenture stock opened at $340.96 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $369.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $340.37. The company has a market cap of $213.89 billion, a PE ratio of 30.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.1 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now 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 is available at this link. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target 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. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned 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.

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.