Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Clarkston Capital Partners LLC

Clarkston Capital Partners LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 38.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,725 shares during the quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $967,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,866,000. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 28.8% in the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $11,300,000 after acquiring an additional 7,151 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $550,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management increased its position in shares of Accenture by 17.3% during the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 115,010 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $40,654,000 after acquiring an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 5.4 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $285.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $349.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $354.55. The company has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a PE ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Accenture

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.