Rice Partnership LLC Invests $3.13 Million in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Rice Partnership LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 10,034 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,131,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8%

NYSE ACN traded up $2.29 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $304.58. The company had a trading volume of 1,616,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,901,159. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $190.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm's 50 day moving average is $309.55 and its 200 day moving average is $329.56.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven investment 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture 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.