Radnor Capital Management LLC Sells 3,624 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Radnor Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,507 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,624 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.1% of Radnor Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Radnor Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,511,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Community Trust NA lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. First Community Trust NA now owns 6,570 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,311,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 37.7% in the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 9,616 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,383,000 after buying an additional 2,632 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 28.5% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 35,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,598,000 after buying an additional 7,952 shares in the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 54.5% during the 4th quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 5,627 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,980,000 after buying an additional 1,984 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $251,607,000 after acquiring an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $217.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.48, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

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.