Signet Financial Management LLC Makes New $823,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Signet Financial Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,638 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $823,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th 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. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target 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. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.14.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $1.58 during trading on Thursday, reaching $317.64. 785,681 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,955,921. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. 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 50 day moving average of $304.23 and a 200-day moving average of $336.42.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.