Faithward Advisors LLC Sells 803 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Faithward Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 29.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,940 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 803 shares during the quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $682,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 140,726 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Eight research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $281.00 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $344.09 and its 200-day moving average is $353.42. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.57, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.