Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 1,276,984 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,136,113 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,276,984 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.0% of Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 1.46% of Accenture worth $3,213,993,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $353.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $355.55. 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 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised 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. Eight equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $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.