Bank of Montreal Can Sells 271,233 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bank of Montreal Can cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,395,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 271,233 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.22% of Accenture worth $490,923,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 5.4 %

ACN opened at $285.04 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.00 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $349.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $354.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.