Sawgrass Asset Management LLC Sells 936 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 936 shares during the quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,096,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted 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 valued at $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.7% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $729,230,000 after buying an additional 611,376 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Accenture by 71.4% in the 4th quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $487,309,000 after buying an additional 578,610 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 33,484.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $199,167,000 after acquiring an additional 565,882 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

Accenture stock traded up $1.33 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $311.99. The company had a trading volume of 2,283,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,499,014. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $340.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $342.35. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.