New Hampshire Trust Sells 1,250 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New Hampshire Trust trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 23.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,144 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,250 shares during the quarter. New Hampshire Trust's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,293,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $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 available at this link. Also, 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5%

ACN stock traded down $1.54 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $312.94. 3,678,166 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,972,910. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $196.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm's 50 day moving average is $302.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $338.08.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.