Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 38,733 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 934 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,065,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $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 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight 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 MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $300.20 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $188.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $340.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $352.78.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm 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 quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

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.