CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Sells 3,255 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 230,075 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,255 shares during the quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $82,305,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,828,325 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $643,186,000 after acquiring an additional 93,040 shares during the last quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 51,466 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in Accenture by 19.6% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 391,615 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $137,766,000 after purchasing an additional 64,282 shares during the last quarter. Allianz SE bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $12,722,000. Finally, Intrust Bank NA increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Intrust Bank NA now owns 6,093 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,143,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight equities research 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $304.32 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $190.61 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $354.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $356.07.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors 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 dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.