Whittier Trust Co. Has $8.02 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Whittier Trust Co. lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 22,786 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 954 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 24.8% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 378 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Prospera Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.0% in the third quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,673 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $591,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the third quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,552 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,609,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 43,265 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,294,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Mizuho lowered their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $384.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 7.3 %

Shares of ACN opened at $300.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $188.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.24, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $357.39.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

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.