Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Has $197.96 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 562,722 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 27,700 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned 0.09% of Accenture worth $197,960,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Syon Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 4,715 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,659,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 6,643 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,342,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 25.1% during the fourth quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 5,235 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 1,052 shares during the last quarter. Quantessence Capital LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $2,487,000. Finally, Alta Advisers Ltd increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd now owns 2,068 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $728,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Barclays decreased their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total value of $902,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,126,833.33. The trade was a 11.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $284.59 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $178.25 billion, a PE ratio of 23.88, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $321.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $348.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.