Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Cut by Forza Wealth Management LLC

Forza Wealth Management LLC reduced its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Forza Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $690,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Searle & CO. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $478,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Guggenheim assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $4.85 during trading on Monday, reaching $303.16. The stock had a trading volume of 4,718,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,463,137. The company has a market capitalization of $203.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $348.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.34. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.