Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.

Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 21.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,070 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,110 shares during the quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $635,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,169,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares during the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $14,555,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

Accenture stock traded up $2.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $293.63. The company had a trading volume of 2,919,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,000,912. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. 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 firm has a market cap of $183.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $316.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $347.02.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue 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 company 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business'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 transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. 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 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays lowered their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average 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.