Manning & Napier Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,129 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,507 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $7,081,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 58.1% in the 4th quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,398 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $492,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares during the last quarter. Field & Main Bank grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 5,520 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,942,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 146.5% during the fourth quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 2,105 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,484 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $522,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $383.74.
View Our Latest Research Report on Accenture
Insider Transactions at Accenture
In related 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 value of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Accenture Price Performance
ACN stock traded up $7.92 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $382.34. 1,172,680 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,691,573. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $358.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $349.20. 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 $239.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.07, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.
About Accenture
(
Free Report)
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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