Russell Investments Group Ltd. Trims Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 14.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 853,235 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 141,349 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.14% of Accenture worth $300,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Down 4.6 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $13.67 on Thursday, reaching $284.79. The stock had a trading volume of 2,596,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,989,053. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $340.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $352.78. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $178.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid 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 yield of 2.08%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

About Accenture

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.