Lafayette Investments Inc. Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lafayette Investments Inc. lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 153 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 1.0% of Lafayette Investments Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,617,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in 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 increased its position in shares of 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 worth $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,351,683,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,746,455,000 after acquiring an additional 140,726 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $289.93 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $181.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $334.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $351.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors 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 yield of 2.04%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 27,921 shares of company stock worth $9,876,619. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays lowered their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight research 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, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.