Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 46,095 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 730 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 1.2% of Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,175,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brave Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC increased its position in Accenture by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp increased its position in Accenture by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $437,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc increased its position in Accenture by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,372 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $832,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $3.91 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $304.10. 1,644,113 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,424,582. The firm has a market cap of $203.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.65, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $342.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total value of $766,562.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 47,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,445,775.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Company 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.