Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. decreased its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 93,040 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,725 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $29,032,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 21,597 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,739,000 after purchasing an additional 548 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,251 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,834,000 after acquiring an additional 464 shares during the period. Genus Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $1,030,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 331,745 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $103,518,000 after acquiring an additional 40,802 shares during the period. Finally, Telos Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,758 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,421,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, 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 research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $7.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $281.01. The company had a trading volume of 5,075,765 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,924,704. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week 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 stock has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.37, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $309.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $327.36.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

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.