Marshall Wace LLP Sells 1,116,491 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Marshall Wace LLP lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 85.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 194,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,116,491 shares during the quarter. Marshall Wace LLP's holdings in Accenture were worth $68,510,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction 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 represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $2.73 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $281.96. 560,157 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,995,981. The firm has a market cap of $176.60 billion, a PE ratio of 23.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company's 50 day moving average is $324.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $349.02. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.