National Bank of Canada FI Sells 317,179 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

National Bank of Canada FI lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 68.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 148,082 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 317,179 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Accenture were worth $52,122,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $353.32 and its 200-day moving average is $355.55. The stock has a market cap of $196.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture 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.