EULAV Asset Management Sells 10,828 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

EULAV Asset Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 103,123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 10,828 shares during the period. EULAV Asset Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,278,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $386.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $241.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $361.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $351.65. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 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.