Cary Street Partners Financial LLC Cuts Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Cary Street Partners Financial LLC reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 5.5%, owning 20,309 shares worth approximately $6.34 million after selling 1,177 shares in the first quarter.
• In recent insider trading, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares for nearly $636,000, decreasing her ownership by 21.73%.
• Accenture's stock price is currently around $246.75, showing a 4.6% decline, despite the company reporting better-than-expected earnings of $3.49 EPS for the last quarter.

Cary Street Partners Financial LLC trimmed its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,309 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,177 shares during the quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $2.65 on Friday, hitting $239.07. 3,810,701 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,579,456. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $238.03 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $149.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.29. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $292.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $316.70. 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 released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price for the company. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.

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.