Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp decreased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 239,393 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,280 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $74,701,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. 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. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.8%

Accenture stock traded down $5.49 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $297.84. The stock had a trading volume of 906,727 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,894,649. The stock has a market capitalization of $186.55 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $309.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $328.62.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.