Taurus Asset Management LLC Sells 1,155 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Taurus Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,856 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,155 shares during the quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,985,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Wolfe Research raised shares of 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Guggenheim cut their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $283.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $177.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.79, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $336.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $352.03.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.