Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Sells 242,484 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,211,503 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 242,484 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $778,026,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in 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 valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $282.28 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $326.22 and a 200 day moving average of $349.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. 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 2.10%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,778 shares of company stock worth $8,408,087 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $377.82.

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.