Russell Investments Group Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 987,318 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 29,365 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 0.6% of Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.16% of Accenture worth $346,499,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 40.3% in the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $308.01. 3,371,848 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. The stock has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.93 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $349.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $341.94.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

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.