Signet Financial Management LLC Sells 3,637 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Signet Financial Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 59.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,637 shares during the quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $877,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.7% during the 1st 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 period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Accenture by 14.9% during the 4th 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 during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,884,051.87. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $313.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $210.57 billion, a PE ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $358.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.14.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.