Waterloo Capital L.P. Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Waterloo Capital L.P. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 25.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,620 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 560 shares during the period. Waterloo Capital L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $570,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Darden Wealth Group Inc grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Darden Wealth Group Inc now owns 2,228 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $784,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Mirabaud Asset Management Ltd grew its stake in Accenture by 40.3% during the 4th quarter. Mirabaud Asset Management Ltd now owns 7,595 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,677,000 after purchasing an additional 2,183 shares in the last quarter. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,420,000. Wedbush Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 6,065 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,134,000 after buying an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perennial Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 631 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 5.4 %

ACN opened at $285.04 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $349.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $354.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.00 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 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%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Eight 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last quarter. Corporate 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.