Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Willis Investment Counsel’s 9th Largest Position

Willis Investment Counsel reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 115,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 135 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 2.4% of Willis Investment Counsel’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,049,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.15.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4%

ACN opened at $318.02 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $304.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $336.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $199.19 billion, a PE ratio of 26.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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 firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Company 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.