Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Sells 6,496 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 62,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 6,496 shares during the quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $21,994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,065,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $308.51 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $355.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $356.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $193.06 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.