Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by CX Institutional

CX Institutional reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 19.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,995 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,126 shares during the period. CX Institutional's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,303,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Davidson Trust Co. increased its stake in Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in 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 worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $90,425,000 after purchasing an additional 56,829 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $321,000. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 252,437 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $89,913,000 after purchasing an additional 3,351 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $1.20 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $318.02. 2,192,507 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,958,130. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.19 billion, a PE ratio of 26.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $304.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $336.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.62.

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.