QRG Capital Management Inc. Sells 8,999 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

QRG Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 174,778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 8,999 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 0.6% of QRG Capital Management Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. QRG Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $54,538,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 21.0% in the first quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,252 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,639,000 after purchasing an additional 912 shares during the period. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $1,500,000. M. Kraus & Co grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. M. Kraus & Co now owns 19,470 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,075,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the period. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,767 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,736,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the period. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $799,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $2.41 on Monday, hitting $314.12. 2,929,569 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,957,915. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $305.50 and a 200-day moving average of $335.40. The stock has a market cap of $196.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.88%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.