Insider Selling: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Sells $643,242.92 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Julie Spellman Sweet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, February 5th, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71.
• On Friday, January 17th, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $285.66 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $330.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $350.70. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. 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.