FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Cuts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 78 shares during the period. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Accenture were worth $343,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.15.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $311.37 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $305.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $335.40. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Accenture 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.