Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by United Services Automobile Association

United Services Automobile Association lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,615 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 115 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,917,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA boosted its holdings in Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its stake in Accenture by 126.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,090,000 after acquiring an additional 22,391 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.05.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $305.17 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The business’s fifty day moving average is $359.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $357.33. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.