Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. Reduces Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 69.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,619 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 56,500 shares during the quarter. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,682,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $300.66 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The company’s 50-day moving average is $307.33 and its 200 day moving average is $332.81. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $188.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Benchmark reissued a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Seven investment 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 MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.75.

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.