Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Lessened by Comgest Global Investors S.A.S.

Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 45.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,218,264 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,020,068 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 7.0% of Comgest Global Investors S.A.S.'s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. owned about 0.19% of Accenture worth $428,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $22,314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,090,000 after buying an additional 22,391 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Accenture by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,088,000 after buying an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 127.1% in the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays decreased their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of ACN traded down $2.96 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $282.28. 2,320,335 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,007,591. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm's fifty day moving average is $326.22 and its 200-day moving average is $349.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.