Arjuna Capital Sells 4,410 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Arjuna Capital cut its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,752 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,410 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 1.9% of Arjuna Capital's holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Arjuna Capital's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,787,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of 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 during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $7.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $281.01. 5,075,765 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,920,596. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market cap of $176.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29. The company's fifty day moving average is $309.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $327.12. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm'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 value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.