Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 26.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 710 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 260 shares during the period. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 29,326.4% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 233,940 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 233,145 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 5,758 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,026,000 after buying an additional 737 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 4,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Essex Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,128,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $319.20 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $199.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $304.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.42. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for 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 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, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.