Tran Capital Management L.P. Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Tran Capital Management L.P. reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 54.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 14,646 shares during the period. Tran Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,875,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $90,425,000 after acquiring an additional 56,829 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $321,000. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,351 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’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 completion of 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% 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. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $319.20 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market capitalization of $199.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $304.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $336.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.