Meeder Asset Management Inc. Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 38 shares during the quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $422,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 7,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,796,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. now owns 8,499 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,982,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its position in Accenture by 71.4% in the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $487,309,000 after purchasing an additional 578,610 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp increased its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 47,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $16,503,000 after purchasing an additional 1,153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, One Wealth Management Investment & Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $1,137,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Accenture stock opened at $331.85 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $222.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $364.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $341.71.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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 return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.