Legato Capital Management LLC Has $4.06 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Legato Capital Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 34.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,534 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 6,099 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 0.5% of Legato Capital Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Legato Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $4,058,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Accenture by 2,666.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 37,788.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $387.22.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $1.55 on Friday, hitting $387.99. 2,022,701 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,705,305. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $365.29 and a 200-day moving average of $354.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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.