First Manhattan CO. LLC. Sells 45,476 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• First Manhattan CO. LLC. reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 6.8%, owning approximately 0.10% of the company after selling 45,476 shares during the first quarter.
• Accenture's stock has a market cap of $162.92 billion, with recent quarterly revenue of $17.73 billion, surpassing analyst expectations.
• Analysts have set a consensus price target of $358.08 for Accenture, with several ratings reflecting a generally positive outlook for the stock.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. cut its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 627,944 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 45,476 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. owned 0.10% of Accenture worth $195,944,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during 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 buying an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $317,000. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $321,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,066,672 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,430,563,000 after buying an additional 457,723 shares during the period. Finally, BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,333,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $1.65 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $254.59. The stock had a trading volume of 4,235,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,641,824. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $236.67 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $268.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $298.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.27, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The business's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Barclays decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.76.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.