Brighton Jones LLC Reduces Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brighton Jones LLC lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,883 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 183 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,275,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in 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 valued at $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position 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 last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 worth $1,340,568,000 after buying an additional 20,876 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. Susquehanna restated 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. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $2.24 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $300.92. 5,224,552 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,496,410. The stock has a market capitalization of $201.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $348.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.34. 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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.