Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Cuts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 235,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 259 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $82,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.76.

Accenture Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $317.45 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $198.83 billion, a PE ratio of 26.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a 50-day moving average of $302.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $341.15.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.