Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 326,349 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 28.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 806,554 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 326,349 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned 0.13% of Accenture worth $251,677,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. 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. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of ACN traded down $0.62 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $302.00. 2,748,416 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,902,731. The firm's 50 day moving average is $308.79 and its 200-day moving average is $330.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $189.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.04, a PEG ratio of 2.84 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.

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.