Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,148 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 932 shares during the quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $217,000. Banco de Sabadell S.A boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Banco de Sabadell S.A now owns 11,128 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,901,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 63.7% in the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $971,000 after buying an additional 1,077 shares during the last quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp increased its position in Accenture by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 2,790 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $979,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Advisors Network Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 47.0% during the fourth quarter. Financial Advisors Network Inc. now owns 1,417 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $497,000 after buying an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $300.99 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $321.32 and its 200 day moving average is $342.59. Accenture plc has a one year low of $285.18 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $201.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Redburn Atlantic raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.24.

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.