Cohen Klingenstein LLC Has $2.39 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cohen Klingenstein LLC cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 66.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 13,700 shares during the quarter. Cohen Klingenstein LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,392,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Verity & Verity LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 62.7% during the fourth quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 8,791 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,093,000 after buying an additional 3,388 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 225.0% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 3,468 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,220,000 after buying an additional 2,401 shares in the last quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH increased its position in Accenture by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH now owns 1,177 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $414,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,965 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,098,000 after acquiring an additional 282 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $352.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $345.02. 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 announced 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. UBS Group raised their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.