Confluence Investment Management LLC Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Confluence Investment Management LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 206 shares during the quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $944,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of ACN opened at $317.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $199.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $302.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $339.04.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Accenture 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.