Saratoga Research & Investment Management Sells 8,185 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Saratoga Research & Investment Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 155,676 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 8,185 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 2.8% of Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $54,765,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of Accenture by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,909,000 after buying an additional 826,038 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $304.32 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $354.96 and a 200-day moving average of $356.07. 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 $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $190.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.