Janus Henderson Group PLC Has $604.94 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Janus Henderson Group PLC trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,719,430 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 128,066 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned about 0.27% of Accenture worth $604,936,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. grew its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 127.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in 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. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight equities 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, 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 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 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $307.85 on Friday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $304.36 and its 200 day moving average is $342.50. 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 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.83, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (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 company 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 company posted $2.77 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. 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.

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