Great Diamond Partners LLC Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Great Diamond Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 10.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,917 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,096 shares during the quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $3,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 37,788.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

ACN stock traded up $5.53 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $390.74. The company had a trading volume of 1,907,225 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,727,823. 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 plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $392.45. The company has a market capitalization of $244.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $360.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $350.64.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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.