Insider Selling: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Sells $1,003,982.14 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Joel Unruch also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 24th, Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of ACN opened at $285.66 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company’s fifty day moving average is $330.47 and its 200 day moving average is $350.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.