Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. Sells 36 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 741 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 36 shares during the quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after buying an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,746,455,000 after acquiring an additional 140,726 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,353,909,000 after acquiring an additional 826,038 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $304.32 on Friday. 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 has a market capitalization of $190.44 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $354.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $355.97. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

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.