Bank of Montreal Can decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,395,501 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 271,233 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.22% of Accenture worth $490,923,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Accenture Stock Down 0.6 %
Shares of Accenture stock traded down $1.68 during trading on Friday, reaching $283.54. 5,017,701 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,010,801. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.59 billion, a PE ratio of 23.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $336.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $352.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.
Insider Activity
In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on ACN
About Accenture
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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.
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