SJS Investment Consulting Inc. Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 567 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 103 shares during the quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 2.8% in the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. MBB Public Markets I LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1,431.7% during the second quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 44,818 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,598,000 after buying an additional 41,892 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its position in Accenture by 71.2% in the 2nd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $632,000 after acquiring an additional 866 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in Accenture by 40.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 952,713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $289,063,000 after acquiring an additional 275,145 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,205,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $669,313,000 after purchasing an additional 51,387 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Barclays increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $357.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $347.30. The company has a market capitalization of $226.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.