BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S Trims Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 33.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,159 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 21,239 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S's holdings in Accenture were worth $14,831,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 22.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $0.97 during trading on Friday, reaching $292.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,036,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,997,804. The company's fifty day moving average is $318.01 and its 200-day moving average is $347.71. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $183.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company 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 firm's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

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.