J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Has $1.06 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG lowered its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,000 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 524 shares during the quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,055,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 worth $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $284.59 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $321.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $348.57. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.25 billion, a PE ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,291 shares of company stock worth $7,880,886 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.