Central Bank & Trust Co. Sells 1,057 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Central Bank & Trust Co. lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 46.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,240 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,057 shares during the quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $387,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's 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 sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho lowered 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 reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.62.

Accenture Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of ACN traded down $1.20 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $318.02. 2,192,507 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,961,274. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The business's 50-day moving average price is $304.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $336.42. 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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.