JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd Reduces Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 542,896 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 9,749 shares during the period. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd owned 0.09% of Accenture worth $190,985,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA raised its stake in Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 127.1% in the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5%

ACN traded down $1.49 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $321.04. 2,417,074 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,992,941. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company's fifty day moving average price is $303.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $341.80. The company has a market cap of $201.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Accenture Company 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.