Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 19,855 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 104,542 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 19,855 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,777,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 297,999 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $104,833,000 after acquiring an additional 4,524 shares during the last quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 3,404 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,191,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 56.7% during the 4th quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 3,464 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,219,000 after acquiring an additional 1,254 shares during the period. Finally, Dakota Wealth Management raised its stake in Accenture by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 38,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,399,000 after acquiring an additional 1,495 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $362.76 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $346.75. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $227.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

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.