L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 109,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,241 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 4.2% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $34,253,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $316.41 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $303.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $337.76. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $198.18 billion, a PE ratio of 26.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.