Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 58,541 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 798 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.4% of Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,594,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $189,000. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,995 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,757,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 12,247 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,308,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $205,000. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.7% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 17,871 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,287,000 after buying an additional 3,301 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of ACN opened at $387.99 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $365.29 and its 200 day moving average is $354.28. The company has a market capitalization of $242.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last quarter. 0.02% 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.