Copeland Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 91.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,600 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 27,576 shares during the quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $811,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP lifted its position in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. United Community Bank lifted its position in Accenture by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. United Community Bank now owns 2,069 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,863,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of Accenture stock opened at $295.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $184.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50 day moving average of $308.04 and a 200 day moving average of $331.42. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week high of $398.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The company 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 yield of 2.01%. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.
Accenture Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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