Brown Advisory Inc. Lowers Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Brown Advisory Inc. decreased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 317,225 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 10,116 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of Accenture worth $98,987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Accenture by 16.8% during 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in 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 valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a 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 research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $6.06 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $297.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,177,356 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,902,999. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $309.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $328.62. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $186.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.