Mendel Money Management Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mendel Money Management cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 552 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 2.0% of Mendel Money Management’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Mendel Money Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,423,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th 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. State Street Corp raised its position in Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,746,455,000 after purchasing an additional 140,726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,353,909,000 after buying an additional 826,038 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.91.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $308.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.35 billion, a PE ratio of 25.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $357.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $356.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.