Groupama Asset Managment Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Groupama Asset Managment decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 54.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 15,626 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment's holdings in Accenture were worth $4,599,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. OV Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. OV Management LLC now owns 2,810 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $989,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. May Hill Capital LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $273,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 12,268 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,769,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company's stock, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $16.42 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $285.04. 4,657,823 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,950,212. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $349.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $354.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 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 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.