Core Alternative Capital Decreases Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Core Alternative Capital decreased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 19.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,611 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 3,984 shares during the period. Core Alternative Capital's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,183,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:ACN traded down $4.30 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $300.48. The company had a trading volume of 2,752,818 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,900,565. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $309.55 and a 200 day moving average of $329.26. The company has a market cap of $188.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $370.71.

About Accenture

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.