Dnca Finance Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Dnca Finance trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 24.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,000 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,900 shares during the quarter. Dnca Finance's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $4.30 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $288.26. 2,761,808 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,004,693. The business's fifty day moving average is $321.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $348.57. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $180.55 billion, a PE ratio of 24.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,291 shares of company stock worth $7,880,886. Corporate 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.