WASHINGTON TRUST Co Trims Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 78,243 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,183 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 0.9% of WASHINGTON TRUST Co's portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. WASHINGTON TRUST Co's holdings in Accenture were worth $24,415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.2%

NYSE:ACN traded up $3.67 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $302.56. The stock had a trading volume of 3,565,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,900,444. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $189.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.09, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $308.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $330.80.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. 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%.

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.