Arvest Investments Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Arvest Investments Inc. cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,860 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 68 shares during the quarter. Arvest Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,517,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 28.1% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $90,425,000 after acquiring an additional 56,829 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $321,000. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 252,437 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $89,913,000 after acquiring an additional 3,351 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5%

Accenture stock opened at $319.20 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $304.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $336.42. The stock has a market cap of $199.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $382.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.