Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 21.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,070 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,110 shares during the quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,432,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $2.22 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $293.63. The company had a trading volume of 2,919,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,002,396. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $316.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $347.25. 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 $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $183.91 billion, a PE ratio of 24.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. 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.