L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Sells 1,241 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP lowered its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 109,770 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,241 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 4.2% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP's portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP's holdings in Accenture were worth $34,253,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $2.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $317.49. The company had a trading volume of 2,308,334 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,966,288. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $303.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $337.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $198.85 billion, a PE ratio of 26.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were 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 $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.