First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,515 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,231 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 2.1% of First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,834,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $295.26 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $184.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm's 50-day moving average is $308.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $331.22. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $273.19 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley cut their target price 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. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price 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.

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