First Trust Advisors LP Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Trust Advisors LP lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 898,880 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 74,436 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.14% of Accenture worth $316,217,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned 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 $377.82.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 23,778 shares of company stock worth $8,408,087. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $282.28 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business’s 50 day moving average is $326.22 and its 200-day moving average is $349.73.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.