Stevens Capital Management LP Sells 2,618 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stevens Capital Management LP lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 32.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,478 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,618 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 0.8% of Stevens Capital Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,927,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 592,510 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $208,449,000 after acquiring an additional 59,976 shares in the last quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 48.7% in the fourth quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,297 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $808,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $83,904,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 16,894 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,943,000 after purchasing an additional 3,383 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AXQ Capital LP bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $446,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $305.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $359.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $357.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment 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 MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.05.

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.