Navellier & Associates Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Navellier & Associates Inc. decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 19.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 920 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 220 shares during the period. Navellier & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $323,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dundas Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Dundas Partners LLP now owns 123,571 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $43,362,000 after purchasing an additional 1,465 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 369.1% during the fourth quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,924 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,184,000 after acquiring an additional 9,382 shares during the last quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC now owns 19,522 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,850,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. boosted its stake in Accenture by 65.0% in the 4th quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 6,534 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,294,000 after purchasing an additional 2,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $478,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup cut their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $381.67.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $4.41 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $303.59. 4,232,001 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,973,109. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $284.26 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $203.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average of $328.56 and a 200-day moving average of $342.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.