Fi3 FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC Cuts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fi3 FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,129 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 61 shares during the period. Fi3 FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $396,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 5.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after purchasing an additional 443,004 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,340,568,000 after purchasing an additional 20,876 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

ACN stock traded up $3.37 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $303.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,767,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $342.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $341.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.