Northeast Investment Management reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 118,599 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 5,557 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.7% of Northeast Investment Management's holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Northeast Investment Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $37,008,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 29,326.4% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 233,940 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 233,145 shares during the period. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 29.2% during the fourth quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,551 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,953,000 after buying an additional 1,255 shares during the period. Pineridge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 769.2% during the fourth quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 113 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sapient Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 5,758 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,026,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Accenture Stock Performance
Shares of ACN stock traded down $6.76 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $311.37. The stock had a trading volume of 3,102,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,958,031. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $195.02 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. 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 company's 50-day simple moving average is $305.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $335.58.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors 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 dividend yield of 1.90%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.15.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on ACN
Accenture Company Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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