Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 151 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $3.29 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $313.54. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,125,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,408,091. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $210.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $353.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Bank of America lifted their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price target on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.