Horan Capital Advisors LLC. Sells 350 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Horan Capital Advisors LLC. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,918 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 350 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 1.5% of Horan Capital Advisors LLC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Horan Capital Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,182,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

Accenture stock traded up $3.35 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $303.69. The stock had a trading volume of 2,766,719 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,503,144. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $344.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.74. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

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.