MJP Associates Inc. ADV Trims Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 62.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,079 shares during the period. MJP Associates Inc. ADV’s holdings in Accenture were worth $225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 101,214.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,078,141,000 after purchasing an additional 4,036,414 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Accenture by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 2.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $5.67 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $346.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,611,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,280,661. The stock has a market cap of $217.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day moving average of $369.12 and a 200-day moving average of $340.38. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. Citigroup decreased their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim started coverage on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

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.