Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Investment House LLC

Investment House LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 91,315 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 603 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 2.3% of Investment House LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Investment House LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $32,043,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 1,865 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $573,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $337,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its holdings in Accenture by 171.8% in the 3rd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 6,718 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after buying an additional 4,246 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 16,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,050,000 after purchasing an additional 366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc increased its position in shares of Accenture by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,343 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $720,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $3.92 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $304.09. The company had a trading volume of 1,787,538 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,425,585. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $349.66 and its 200-day moving average is $342.35. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

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.