Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 19.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,133 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 17,165 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,320,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $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 valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Eight 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $293.63 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $183.91 billion, a PE ratio of 24.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $316.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.