MJP Associates Inc. ADV Sells 71 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,406 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 71 shares during the period. MJP Associates Inc. ADV’s holdings in Accenture were worth $494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays decreased their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3%

ACN opened at $307.85 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $192.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $304.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company 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. 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 1.92%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents 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 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.