Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Harbor Investment Advisory LLC

Harbor Investment Advisory LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 89 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of ACN opened at $316.71 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $302.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $338.35. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. 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 $198.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given 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 yield of 1.87%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.