Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Cut by Perkins Coie Trust Co

Perkins Coie Trust Co reduced its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 9,317 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 660 shares during the period. Perkins Coie Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,907,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $317.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $198.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $303.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $337.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.