Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Has $7.08 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,129 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,507 shares during the quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,081,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,581,000 after acquiring an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $375.13 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $358.27 and a 200-day moving average of $349.02. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $234.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,126,833.33. This trade represents a 11.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

Accenture Company 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.