Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Lbp Am Sa

LBP AM SA cut its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 30.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 217,227 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 96,502 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.0% of LBP AM SA's investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. LBP AM SA's holdings in Accenture were worth $67,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,863,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sentinus LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $7.35 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $281.01. 5,075,765 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,920,596. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $309.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $327.12. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $176.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) 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 net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

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.