Provident Trust Co. Has $474.04 Million Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Provident Trust Co. trimmed its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,519,151 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 18,173 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 8.8% of Provident Trust Co.'s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Provident Trust Co. owned about 0.24% of Accenture worth $474,036,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $317,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $3.78 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $276.21. 3,967,640 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,731,163. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $308.44 and a 200-day moving average of $326.35. The stock has a market cap of $173.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.06, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.