Gotham Asset Management LLC Decreases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Gotham Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 29.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,406 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 7,098 shares during the quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Fiduciary Alliance LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 105.7% during the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 5,617 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,886 shares in the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 142.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,058 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,483,000 after purchasing an additional 4,141 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 5,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,886,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares during the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 86.8% in the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 1,655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $582,000 after acquiring an additional 769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unique Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Unique Wealth LLC now owns 8,005 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,816,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $322.47 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $303.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.94. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $201.97 billion, a PE ratio of 27.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.