Saratoga Research & Investment Management cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 155,676 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 8,185 shares during the period. Accenture comprises about 2.8% of Saratoga Research & Investment Management's holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Saratoga Research & Investment Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $54,765,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $666,495,000. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Accenture by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,353,909,000 after purchasing an additional 826,038 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $378.23.
Get Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Trading Down 4.7 %
Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $14.73 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $301.60. The stock had a trading volume of 2,353,202 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,935,455. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $188.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company's 50 day moving average price is $352.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $355.28. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 1.96%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.
Insider Activity at Accenture
In other Accenture news, 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 value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 ninety days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
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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