Federated Hermes Inc. Sells 934 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Federated Hermes Inc. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,733 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 934 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 6.7 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $300.20 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $340.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $352.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $188.02 billion, a PE ratio of 25.18, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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. The firm 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in 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 research note on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.