Griffin Asset Management Inc. Sells 50 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Griffin Asset Management Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 28,694 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 50 shares during the period. Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,954,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. BNC Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 635.2% in the first quarter. BNC Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,101 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,336,000 after buying an additional 14,775 shares during the period. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.3% in the first quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 6,593 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,057,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the period. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.3% in the first quarter. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,850 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,634,000 after buying an additional 1,853 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.5% in the first quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 4,418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,378,000 after buying an additional 954 shares during the period. Finally, Everhart Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 4.4% in the first quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,978 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,241,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Mizuho dropped 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $382.15.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $311.37 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $305.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $335.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid 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 1.90%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 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.