Townsquare Capital LLC Sells 7,196 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Townsquare Capital LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 111,016 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 7,196 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $39,055,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,921 shares of company stock valued at $9,876,619 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded down $3.00 on Wednesday, hitting $285.66. 3,183,831 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,009,406. 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 fifty day moving average of $332.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $351.15. The firm has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

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.