Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by CCLA Investment Management

CCLA Investment Management lessened its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 5.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 254,010 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 13,700 shares during the quarter. CCLA Investment Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $79,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $37,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “hold” rating and a $290.00 target price on the stock. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $255.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $159.83 billion, a PE ratio of 20.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $254.20 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $297.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $319.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

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.