United Capital Financial Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

United Capital Financial Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 193,536 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 7,336 shares during the period. United Capital Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $68,084,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB boosted 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. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total value of $902,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,126,833.33. The trade was a 11.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock worth $8,408,087 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho cut their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

ACN stock traded down $2.96 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $282.28. The stock had a trading volume of 2,320,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,007,591. 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 firm has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $328.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $350.21. 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 issued its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. 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 company posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business 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 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 dividend yield of 2.10%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.