Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Insider Sells $1,536,100.00 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN traded down $1.07 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $307.93. 3,371,677 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,435,283. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.94. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $206.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture's payout ratio is 46.78%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,298 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $706,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP now owns 116,006 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $35,627,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,453 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,982,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 124.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 3,591 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,103,000 after purchasing an additional 1,992 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jmac Enterprises LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC now owns 2,200 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $676,000 after purchasing an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a "buy" rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $387.00.

About Accenture

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.