National Bank of Canada FI Sells 317,179 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

National Bank of Canada FI reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 68.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 148,082 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 317,179 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Accenture were worth $52,122,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 12,268 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,769,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151 shares during the last quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.2% in the fourth quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC now owns 3,346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,025 shares during the last quarter. Summit Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 14,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,935,000 after purchasing an additional 681 shares in the last quarter. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $70,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $353.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $355.55. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $196.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. 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 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced 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 note on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture 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.