NFJ Investment Group LLC Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

NFJ Investment Group LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,319 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 42 shares during the quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,519,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,439,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 419.1% in the 4th quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,925,000 after acquiring an additional 4,417 shares during the last quarter. Montag & Caldwell LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. Montag & Caldwell LLC now owns 29,614 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,418,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. Kane Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $656,000. Finally, Schwerin Boyle Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Schwerin Boyle Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,815 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,094,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $282.28 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $328.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $350.21. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. 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 in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in 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 research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

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.