Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Sells 5,232 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 54.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,419 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 5,232 shares during the quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,582 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings 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 worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

ACN opened at $313.94 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $358.39 and a 200 day moving average of $342.14. The company has a market cap of $210.57 billion, a PE ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share 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 issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Redburn Atlantic upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,884,051.87. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,884,051.87. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.