Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $70.62 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 226,320 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 6,055 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB's holdings in Accenture were worth $70,621,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 29,326.4% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 233,940 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 233,145 shares in the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 2,022 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $711,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 29.8% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 30,349 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $10,676,000 after purchasing an additional 6,960 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 212.0% in the fourth quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 6,573 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,312,000 after purchasing an additional 4,466 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.15.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded down $6.76 during trading on Friday, reaching $311.37. 3,102,635 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,958,057. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $305.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $335.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

About Accenture

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.