CENTRAL TRUST Co Has $3.23 Million Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

CENTRAL TRUST Co reduced its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,337 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 160 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,226,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Global Trust Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the first quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 568 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $177,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 261.4% in the first quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 636 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $198,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 142.6% in the first quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,440 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,198 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.2% in the first quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 12,187 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,803,000 after purchasing an additional 374 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vivid Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,190,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective 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. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7%

ACN stock opened at $312.03 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $306.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $334.90. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $195.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given 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 dividend yield of 1.90%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.