Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Montecito Bank & Trust

Montecito Bank & Trust lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 20.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,798 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 957 shares during the quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,185,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. M. Kraus & Co grew its position in Accenture by 1.0% in the first quarter. M. Kraus & Co now owns 19,470 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,075,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the period. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 2.2% in the first quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,767 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,736,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG purchased a new position in Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $799,000. Good Life Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.7% in the first quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,091,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH grew its position in Accenture by 6.4% in the first quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 4,492 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,402,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.15.

Accenture Trading Down 2.1%

Accenture stock opened at $311.37 on Monday. The company's fifty day moving average price is $305.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $335.40. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% 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 worth $2,507,366 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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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