Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,443 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 168 shares during the period. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,081,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $2.59 on Monday, reaching $351.26. 1,660,947 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,784,703. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $342.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.81 billion, a PE ratio of 30.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase 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 generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.23.

About Accenture

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.