Cohen Klingenstein LLC Sells 13,700 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cohen Klingenstein LLC lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 66.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 13,700 shares during the period. Cohen Klingenstein LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,392,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $1,524,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,999,000. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 41,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,652,000 after purchasing an additional 5,045 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.6% in the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,957 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,752,000 after purchasing an additional 840 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clifford Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. Clifford Group LLC now owns 2,286 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $694,000 after buying an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $352.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $357.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $345.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

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.