Perigon Wealth Management LLC Sells 1,187 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Perigon Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 15.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,383 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,187 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,992,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $350,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,177,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $78,000. Finally, Nwam LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 3,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,228,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was 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 $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $295.26 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $308.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $331.64. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $184.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

About Accenture

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.