Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Comgest Global Investors S.A.S.

Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 45.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,218,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,020,068 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 7.0% of Comgest Global Investors S.A.S.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. owned 0.19% of Accenture worth $428,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $255,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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 issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Down 0.6 %

ACN opened at $283.54 on Monday. 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 one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $177.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.79, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $336.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $352.00.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.