Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Childress Capital Advisors LLC

Childress Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 15.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,248 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 234 shares during the period. Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $390,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 1,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $406,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $74,000. Finally, Dahring Cusmano LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $283,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

Accenture Trading Down 6.8%

ACN opened at $285.66 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $306.98 and its 200-day moving average is $333.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The business’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.