WASHINGTON TRUST Co Sells 1,462 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 80,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,462 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.0% of WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,293,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $387.99 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $364.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $353.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.