KLCM Advisors Inc. Sells 350 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

KLCM Advisors Inc. cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,189 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 350 shares during the quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Slow Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 8,566 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,006,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Sfmg LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 2,775 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $974,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors now owns 1,544 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $542,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $1,374,000. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,820 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,148,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture 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 value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture 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 value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $313.94. 2,900,382 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,239,222. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $210.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $358.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $342.14.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.