Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.

Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 29.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,635 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,931 shares during the period. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 2,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $889,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $1,531,000. MONECO Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 1,713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $603,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $350,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Benchmark restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday. Seven research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $374.00.

Accenture Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $295.03 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $184.79 billion, a PE ratio of 23.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $307.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $333.04. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture 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 directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Company 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.