Baird Financial Group Inc. Cuts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Baird Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 337,674 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,123 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned 0.05% of Accenture worth $118,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1 %

ACN stock traded down $3.51 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $304.20. 2,717,473 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,982,925. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.52, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $343.86.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Eight 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, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.