Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Wormser Freres Gestion’s 3rd Largest Position

Wormser Freres Gestion decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,013 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 766 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 5.9% of Wormser Freres Gestion’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Wormser Freres Gestion’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,929,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Warm Springs Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $1,505,000. Cache Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $2,368,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $1,138,000. Parr Mcknight Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $5,610,000. Finally, Wick Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Wick Capital Partners LLC now owns 694 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $244,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $309.51 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $302.06 and a 200 day moving average of $340.22. The company has a market capitalization of $193.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.97, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Accenture

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.