Ninety One UK Ltd Sells 79,481 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ninety One UK Ltd lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 489,824 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 79,481 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd owned 0.08% of Accenture worth $171,884,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 101,214.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,141,000 after purchasing an additional 4,036,414 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after buying an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Bank of America upped their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,750 shares of company stock valued at $14,543,436 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $0.51 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $315.05. 1,431,857 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,354,357. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $211.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $357.35 and its 200 day moving average is $341.95.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.