BIP Wealth LLC Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

BIP Wealth LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,563 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 44 shares during the quarter. BIP Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,605,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased 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 valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in 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 period. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $305.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $191.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.63, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $308.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $344.83.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.