Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 17.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,689 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 992 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,463,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors boosted its position in Accenture by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP boosted its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $315.14 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $303.07 and its 200-day moving average is $337.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $197.38 billion, a PE ratio of 26.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.14.

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.

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