Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by Gateway Investment Advisers LLC

Key Points

• Gateway Investment Advisers LLC significantly reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 93.4%, owning only 7,940 shares after selling 112,991 shares during the second quarter.
• Accenture's stock has a current market cap of $151.08 billion, and has experienced various target price adjustments by analysts, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and average price target of $338.88.
• Recent insider transactions included sales by CEO Julie Spellman Sweet and insider Angela Beatty, reflecting a decrease in their ownership positions.

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC reduced its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 93.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,940 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 112,991 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,373,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Susquehanna reduced their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $305.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on Accenture from $342.00 to $313.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $335.39.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded up $1.10 on Friday, reaching $240.65. The company had a trading volume of 11,449,719 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,980,534. 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 one year low of $234.18 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $150.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.16, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $257.73 and a 200-day moving average of $289.38.

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

Accenture 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.