Johnson Financial Group Inc. Cuts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Johnson Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 22,669 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,416 shares during the quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,760,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its holdings in shares of 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. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 126.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,090,000 after buying an additional 22,391 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,088,000 after buying an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $3.70 during trading on Thursday, hitting $302.85. 1,323,556 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,373,474. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $189.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $311.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $345.90.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays lowered their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was 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 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.