Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 141,349 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm 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 approximately 0.14% of Accenture worth $300,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,866,000. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. SYM FINANCIAL Corp acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 4,150 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,467,000 after buying an additional 724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wills Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wills Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,882 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,140,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $285.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $349.68 and a 200 day moving average of $354.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight investment 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture 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.