Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC

Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC lowered its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,544 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 109 shares during the period. Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $543,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after buying an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 24.8% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 378 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.0% in the third quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,673 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $591,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,552 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,609,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 43,265 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,294,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $300.86 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $188.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $360.05 and its 200-day moving average is $357.39. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $384.45.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.