Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Rhumbline Advisers

Rhumbline Advisers lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,164,244 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 8,993 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.19% of Accenture worth $363,291,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5%

ACN traded down $1.54 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $312.94. 3,678,232 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,972,910. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. 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 has a market cap of $196.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $302.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $338.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target 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. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.14.

About Accenture

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.