Russell Investments Group Ltd. Decreases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 987,318 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 29,365 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 0.6% of Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $346,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th 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 period. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE ACN traded down $0.99 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $308.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,371,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.94. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.