Argent Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 12.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,769 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,826 shares during the quarter. Argent Trust Co's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,233,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lipe & Dalton boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% during the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $321,000. United Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of Accenture stock opened at $255.18 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $254.20 and a twelve month high of $398.35. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $297.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $319.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Accenture
About Accenture
(
Free Report)
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.
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