Meeder Asset Management Inc. Sells 123 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 32.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 255 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 123 shares during the quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $90,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.5% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 582,894 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $206,097,000 after purchasing an additional 64,553 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Accenture by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,847,496 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $653,043,000 after acquiring an additional 50,995 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,866,000. Intrepid Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.4% in the third quarter. Intrepid Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,486 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Finally, IHT Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,757 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,797,000 after purchasing an additional 1,442 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

ACN stock opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $353.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $355.55. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $196.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment 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 MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

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.