Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Willis Investment Counsel

Willis Investment Counsel trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 115,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 135 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 2.4% of Willis Investment Counsel’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,049,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Rockland Trust Co. grew its stake in Accenture by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 69,647 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,733,000 after buying an additional 1,177 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its position in Accenture by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 130,338 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $40,671,000 after acquiring an additional 6,203 shares during the period. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 106,286 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $33,165,000 after acquiring an additional 3,010 shares during the period. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA now owns 11,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,675,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,598 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,747,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $382.15.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $318.02 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $304.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $336.13. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. 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 firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.