Fernwood Investment Management LLC Sells 75 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fernwood Investment Management LLC cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,450 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 75 shares during the quarter. Fernwood Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in Accenture by 4.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after buying an additional 443,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,340,568,000 after buying an additional 20,876 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $4.85 during trading on Monday, reaching $303.16. The company had a trading volume of 4,718,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,463,137. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $349.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $342.35. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $203.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.65, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.