Polen Capital Management LLC Sells 318,132 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Polen Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 9.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,208,478 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 318,132 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 3.1% of Polen Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Polen Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.51% of Accenture worth $1,001,173,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Lipe & Dalton lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% in the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after acquiring an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $321,000. United Bank bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 1.1%

Accenture stock opened at $239.07 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $291.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $315.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $149.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $238.03 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Evercore ISI started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. HSBC started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They set a “reduce” rating and a $240.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $360.21.

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.