B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 811 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,919,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in 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 valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays decreased their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.14.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Accenture
Accenture Price Performance
ACN traded down $1.02 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $316.71. 4,008,963 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,996,319. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $302.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $339.04. The company has a market capitalization of $198.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.57, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
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 dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.
About Accenture
(
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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