Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Fiera Capital Corp

Fiera Capital Corp lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 72.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,692 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 89,507 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $12,174,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. now owns 102 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $381.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $4.38 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $303.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,231,938 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,520,746. The business has a fifty day moving average of $328.56 and a 200-day moving average of $342.46. The stock has a market cap of $203.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $284.26 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Accenture 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.

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