Greenwood Capital Associates LLC Acquires 4,515 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Greenwood Capital Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 32.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 18,223 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 4,515 shares during the period. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,686,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Visionary Wealth Advisors raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its position in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in Accenture by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of ACN stock traded down $1.20 on Thursday, hitting $318.02. The stock had a trading volume of 2,192,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,958,129. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $199.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $304.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $336.42.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price 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.