Crestline Management LP cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 68.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,960 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 6,467 shares during the period. Crestline Management LP's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings 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 worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.
Read Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $14.42 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $322.32. 3,271,131 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,986,204. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $201.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.04, 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. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $304.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed 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 is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.
Insider Activity
In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Accenture Profile
(
Free Report)
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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