Two Sigma Investments LP Sells 31,920 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Two Sigma Investments LP decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 76.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,700 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 31,920 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP's holdings in Accenture were worth $3,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Davidson Trust Co. raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Accenture by 37.5% in the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brentview Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,089,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Seven 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Accenture Stock Down 1.1%

NYSE ACN traded down $3.38 on Tuesday, hitting $311.09. 812,870 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,961,891. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $302.69 and a 200 day moving average of $338.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $194.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last quarter. 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.