Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure Sells 4,500 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $0.79 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $314.73. The stock had a trading volume of 2,760,008 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,368,561. The company has a market capitalization of $211.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $358.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.14. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 101,214.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,078,141,000 after acquiring an additional 4,036,414 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 20.2% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,879,123 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,063,048,000 after acquiring an additional 989,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.