Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. Sells 1,908 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 235,700 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,908 shares during the period. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $82,917,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % 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 valued at $7,880,886. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $5.46 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $289.42. 1,164,303 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,998,723. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $321.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $348.57. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $181.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 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.