Sigma Planning Corp Sells 1,496 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sigma Planning Corp lessened its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 55.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,205 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,496 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $423,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $307.93 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. 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. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $349.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $341.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. 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 firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Redburn Atlantic increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.