Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO John F. Walsh Sells 8,000 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $346.10 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $369.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $340.38. The firm has a market cap of $217.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 14th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Foundation Advisors grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 11,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,572,000 after acquiring an additional 741 shares during the period. BOKF NA grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 45,759 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,120,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the period. New Republic Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $606,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,315,832,000 after acquiring an additional 96,414 shares during the period. Finally, Dash Acquisitions Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 34,043 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,361,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.