Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Lord Abbett & CO. LLC

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 304,504 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 167 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $107,121,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew 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 worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $291.43 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $318.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $347.71. The stock has a market cap of $182.53 billion, a PE ratio of 24.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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 $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.