Zacks Investment Management lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 102,088 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 12,922 shares during the quarter. Zacks Investment Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $35,913,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in 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 buying an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,746,455,000 after purchasing an additional 140,726 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Activity
In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of Accenture stock traded down $2.96 during 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $326.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $349.73. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.
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 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on ACN
Accenture Profile
(
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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