First Manhattan CO. LLC. Sells 30,307 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 673,420 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 30,307 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 0.7% of First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. First Manhattan CO. LLC. owned 0.11% of Accenture worth $236,902,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 604.3% during the 4th quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 24,039 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $8,457,000 after purchasing an additional 20,626 shares during the period. FWL Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 5,724 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,014,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in Accenture by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,541,882 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,245,999,000 after purchasing an additional 221,543 shares during the period. Dunhill Financial LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 19.0% during the 4th quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 301 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $106,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Global Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Global Advisors LLC now owns 33,776 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $11,882,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective 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. Guggenheim reduced 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, Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $1.03 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $307.85. The stock had a trading volume of 1,844,361 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,985,060. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.82 billion, a PE ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $304.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.35. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. Analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.