First Financial Bank Trust Division Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Financial Bank Trust Division decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 14.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,363 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,900 shares during the quarter. First Financial Bank Trust Division's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,418,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 worth $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Accenture by 22.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.14.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $1.02 on Friday, hitting $316.71. The stock had a trading volume of 4,012,185 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,972,621. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. 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 stock has a market cap of $198.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company's 50 day moving average price is $302.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.52.

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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.