Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Sells 17,165 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 19.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 69,133 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 17,165 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $24,320,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $0.53 on Wednesday, reaching $299.00. 1,647,340 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,989,407. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $187.27 billion, a PE ratio of 25.08, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $312.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $346.22. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of 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 target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold a total of 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.