Saturna Capital Corp Sells 537 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Saturna Capital Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,814 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 537 shares during the period. Saturna Capital Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $518,000. Hardy Reed LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.5% during the first quarter. Hardy Reed LLC now owns 7,801 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,434,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP raised its stake in Accenture by 1.9% during the first quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 4,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,477,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 4.6% during the first quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 75,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $23,714,000 after buying an additional 3,312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 264.5% during the first quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 39,021 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,176,000 after buying an additional 28,315 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Eight 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 company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1%

ACN opened at $282.72 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $177.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $306.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $325.21.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date 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.