Wright Investors Service Inc. Has $2.62 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wright Investors Service Inc. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,462 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 505 shares during the quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,618,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Flossbach Von Storch AG lifted its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 388,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $136,366,000 after acquiring an additional 8,472 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 56,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,832,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744 shares during the last quarter. Key Financial Inc lifted its position in Accenture by 999.7% during the fourth quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 3,431 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,204,000 after acquiring an additional 3,119 shares during the last quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 650 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $228,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Slow Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 8,566 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,006,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,884,051.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,750 shares of company stock worth $14,543,436 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $2.50 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $317.04. 729,750 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,345,647. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.53, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $357.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.95. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.