River Global Investors LLP Reduces Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

River Global Investors LLP cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 26.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,845 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,245 shares during the quarter. River Global Investors LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,106,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NTV Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 133.2% in the fourth quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 3,241 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,137,000 after purchasing an additional 1,851 shares in the last quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 224.4% in the 4th quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,579 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,660,000 after buying an additional 5,243 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Accenture by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 421,961 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 94,149 shares during the period. Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $211,000. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group grew its position in shares of Accenture by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 1,637 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $574,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $3.37 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $303.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,767,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $342.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $341.73. The company has a market cap of $203.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total value of $766,562.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 47,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,445,775.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture 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.