Brown Advisory Inc. Sells 5,219 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brown Advisory Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 327,341 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 5,219 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. owned about 0.05% of Accenture worth $115,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth 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. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised 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 lifted its position in Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $305.49 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $191.34 billion, a PE ratio of 25.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company's fifty day moving average price is $308.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $344.61. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released 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 business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Accenture Company 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.

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