Russell Investments Group Ltd. Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 853,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 141,349 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $300,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 5.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $285.04 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $349.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $354.42. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week 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 stock has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a PE ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. 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 2.08%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.