Summit Global Investments Cuts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Summit Global Investments decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 81.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,044 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,691 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments' holdings in Accenture were worth $326,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Tompkins Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 18,846 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $5,881,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 16,766 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $5,232,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,943 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $918,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farmers Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 31.2% in the 1st quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 14,205 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,433,000 after buying an additional 3,381 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays reduced their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $3.66 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $316.56. 1,427,553 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,964,668. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $198.27 billion, a PE ratio of 26.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $302.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $337.91.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company'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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company'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 $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 sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture 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.