Buffington Mohr McNeal Sells 534 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Buffington Mohr McNeal trimmed its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,476 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 534 shares during the period. Buffington Mohr McNeal’s holdings in Accenture were worth $869,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 valued at $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Accenture by 2.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.29 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $312.98. 1,229,739 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,338,643. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.41, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $359.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.09. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group increased their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.