Bourgeon Capital Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bourgeon Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 44.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,875 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 18,294 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.5% of Bourgeon Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $7,138,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Davidson Trust Co. raised its stake in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Brentview Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,089,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $90,425,000 after purchasing an additional 56,829 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $321,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% 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 valued at $2,507,366 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird raised shares of 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. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. 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, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $3.51 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $316.41. 2,336,664 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,968,393. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $302.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $337.91. The firm has a market cap of $198.18 billion, a PE ratio of 26.54, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.