Alliancebernstein L.P. Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alliancebernstein L.P. reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,708,267 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 33,715 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $952,741,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $70,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during 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 last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 106,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $37,346,000 after purchasing an additional 11,240 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in Accenture by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,828,325 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $643,186,000 after purchasing an additional 93,040 shares during the period. Finally, RWA Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 51,466 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,105,000 after buying an additional 1,941 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $304.32 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $190.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $354.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $356.07. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.