First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 33,738 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,187 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 2.6% of First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 93.7% in the fourth quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 35,163 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,339,000 after acquiring an additional 17,008 shares in the last quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 71.2% during the fourth quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. now owns 214 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. VCI Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $1,460,000. Abbrea Capital LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Abbrea Capital LLC now owns 4,110 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,442,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Syon Capital LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 60.0% during the fourth quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 7,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,648 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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 business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’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 value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $307.93 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $206.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $349.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $341.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business 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 business posted $2.69 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Accenture 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.