Polen Capital Management LLC Sells 318,132 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Polen Capital Management LLC has reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 9.0%, selling 318,132 shares, and currently holds approximately 3.1% of its investment portfolio in the company.
• Accenture has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.5%, due to be paid on August 15th.
• Accenture reported earnings per share of $3.49 for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, and its revenue was up 7.7% year-over-year, marking a total of $17.73 billion during the quarter.

Polen Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 9.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,208,478 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 318,132 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 3.1% of Polen Capital Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Polen Capital Management LLC owned about 0.51% of Accenture worth $1,001,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $450,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,667,393,000 after acquiring an additional 732,769 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 target price for the company. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $7.74 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $245.61. 5,277,841 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,535,531. The company has a market cap of $153.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.29. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $288.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $313.86. 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 52 week low of $236.67 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Accenture Company 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.