American Century Companies Inc. Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

American Century Companies 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 381,499 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 481 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.06% of Accenture worth $134,208,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 378.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in 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. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,909,000 after acquiring an additional 826,038 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 1.4 %

ACN opened at $305.17 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $190.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $359.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $357.33. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.05.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.