Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Manning & Napier Advisors LLC

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 18,895 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,234 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,896,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 832.5% in the first quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 13,838 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,318,000 after purchasing an additional 12,354 shares during the period. Running Oak Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC now owns 43,770 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $13,658,000 after buying an additional 4,996 shares during the period. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Suncoast Equity Management lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.7% in the first quarter. Suncoast Equity Management now owns 127,681 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $39,842,000 after acquiring an additional 2,174 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered 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. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Guggenheim reduced 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. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 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.

Accenture Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of ACN stock traded up $5.66 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $300.66. 4,940,464 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,942,337. The stock has a market cap of $188.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.94, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $307.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $333.04. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

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.