Sycomore Asset Management Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sycomore Asset Management trimmed its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,477 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,561 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 1.9% of Sycomore Asset Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Sycomore Asset Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,014,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Accenture by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,544,672,000 after purchasing an additional 443,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,340,568,000 after purchasing an additional 20,876 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note 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 note on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $3.29 on Wednesday, reaching $313.54. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,125,479 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,408,188. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.43, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $352.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $342.20. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.