C WorldWide Group Holding A S Buys 4,342 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

C WorldWide Group Holding A S raised its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 262.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,997 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 4,342 shares during the quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,871,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $365.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $282.37. The company had a trading volume of 4,207,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,919,693. The company has a market capitalization of $176.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $306.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $324.73.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio 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.