Accenture (NYSE:ACN) CEO Atsushi Egawa Sells 4,872 Shares

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE ACN traded down $1.30 on Thursday, reaching $178.96. The company had a trading volume of 6,033,042 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,328,470. The firm has a market cap of $119.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $173.65 and a fifty-two week high of $325.71. The business has a 50 day moving average of $197.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $236.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.33% and a net margin of 10.61%.The company had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.82 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.40%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 46.9% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $618,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares during the period. United Bank grew its position in Accenture by 49.8% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 3,639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in Accenture by 23.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 828 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $247,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.2% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $230.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 20th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $320.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $274.50.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.