DDD Partners LLC Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

DDD Partners LLC decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 218 shares during the period. DDD Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Foundation Advisors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 6.8% during the second quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 11,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,572,000 after buying an additional 741 shares in the last quarter. BOKF NA grew its stake in Accenture by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 45,759 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,120,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. New Republic Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $606,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,315,832,000 after acquiring an additional 96,414 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dash Acquisitions Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 34,043 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,361,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $340.96 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $369.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $340.37. The stock has a market cap of $213.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,884,051.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.