Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. Reduces Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 235,700 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,908 shares during the quarter. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $82,917,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of ACN opened at $282.28 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $328.38 and a 200 day moving average of $350.21. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total value of $902,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,126,833.33. This represents a 11.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,778 shares of company stock worth $8,408,087. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.