Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Fiduciary Alliance LLC

Fiduciary Alliance LLC lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,539 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 78 shares during the quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,728,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 period. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of ACN opened at $314.49 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $302.69 and a 200-day moving average of $338.08. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.38, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio 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.