Yousif Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 87,703 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,296 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $30,776,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $0.62 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $316.80. The company had a trading volume of 2,000,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,386,068. The firm's fifty day moving average is $353.29 and its 200-day moving average is $342.40. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.00.

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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