Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 57,023 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,507 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,060,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 17.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30.7% in the 3rd quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the third quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 12,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,578,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. Cynosure Group LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 18.4% in the third quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 1,504 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 209.4% in the third quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 5,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,042,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $311.38 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $356.77 and its 200 day moving average is $356.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Eight 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This trade 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 valued at $8,181,753 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.