First Merchants Corp Sells 1,452 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

First Merchants Corp lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 45,557 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,452 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $14,216,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after buying an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $317,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the general counsel now 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was 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 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $296.03 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $307.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $332.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $185.41 billion, a PE ratio of 23.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released 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 analysts' expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

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.

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