Covenant Partners LLC Decreases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Covenant Partners LLC lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,246 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 192 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 0.7% of Covenant Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Covenant Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,197,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $308.03 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $307.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.13. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.