American Trust Has $6.26 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

American Trust lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 9.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,788 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,865 shares during the period. American Trust's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 5.7% in 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 last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth 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. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen 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 a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $2.78 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $314.95. 1,012,271 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,267,197. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $302.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $339.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $197.26 billion, a PE ratio of 26.42, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

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.