Vista Investment Partners LLC Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vista Investment Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,153 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 117 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.2% of Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,104,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $314.12 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $306.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $335.06. The company has a market cap of $196.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.35, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.00.

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.