Parallel Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 58,410 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,174 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $18,226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tompkins Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 18,846 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $5,881,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the first quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 16,766 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $5,232,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,943 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $918,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Farmers Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 31.2% in the first quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 14,205 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,433,000 after buying an additional 3,381 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.14.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on ACN
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $1.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $313.38. The company had a trading volume of 1,360,076 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,268,634. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $196.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.29, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $302.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $338.08.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Accenture Company Profile
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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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