Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 3,770 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 46,335 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 3,770 shares during the quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,458,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 47.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $317,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Up 3.4%

Shares of ACN stock traded up $9.66 on Monday, reaching $295.03. 5,449,311 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,940,172. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $184.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33. The business's 50 day moving average price is $306.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $333.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given 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 dividend yield of 2.01%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 12th. 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.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $374.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company'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 value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.