Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC

Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 45 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 1.5% of Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Hamilton Point Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,292,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. 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 report on Monday, June 16th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of 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 lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.43.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $3.95 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $282.09. The stock had a trading volume of 914,579 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,347,689. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $304.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $323.36. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $176.68 billion, a PE ratio of 22.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.29. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.