First National Trust Co Has $13.95 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First National Trust Co reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 39,766 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,453 shares during the quarter. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,954,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $729,230,000 after buying an additional 611,376 shares during the period. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its position in shares of Accenture by 71.4% during the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $487,309,000 after purchasing an additional 578,610 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 33,484.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $199,167,000 after purchasing an additional 565,882 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of ACN traded up $3.37 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $303.71. 2,767,141 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a fifty day moving average of $342.95 and a 200-day moving average of $341.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was 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 owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $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.