Weatherly Asset Management L. P. Lowers Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Weatherly Asset Management L. P. reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,543 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 385 shares during the quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,945,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after buying an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Accenture by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,544,672,000 after buying an additional 443,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,340,568,000 after purchasing an additional 20,876 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.62 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $316.80. 2,000,140 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,386,068. The stock has a market cap of $212.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $354.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $342.37. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.