MWA Asset Management Sells 105 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

MWA Asset Management lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,818 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 105 shares during the quarter. MWA Asset Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $879,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. HSBC began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They set a “reduce” rating and a $240.00 target price for the company. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture Trading Down 4.5%

NYSE ACN opened at $255.18 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $159.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.32, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $297.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $319.10. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $254.20 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

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.