Tsai Capital Corp Reduces Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Tsai Capital Corp trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,065 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 149 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 2.1% of Tsai Capital Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Tsai Capital Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,837,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Intrust Bank NA raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Intrust Bank NA now owns 6,093 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,143,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Allstate Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $6,521,000. Maridea Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $209,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in Accenture by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 11,844 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,167,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 115,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $40,541,000 after purchasing an additional 5,397 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $304.32 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $190.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $354.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $355.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.