Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Position Reduced by Catalina Capital Group LLC

Catalina Capital Group LLC reduced its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 62.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 992 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,626 shares during the period. Catalina Capital Group LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $309,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 47.6% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $317,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $350,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.00.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded down $20.72 during trading on Friday, reaching $285.66. 11,638,670 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,952,218. The company has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.59, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $274.33 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $306.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $333.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were 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 directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.