Foster Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Foster Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 829 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 67 shares during the period. Foster Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $259,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vest Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 30.1% during the first quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 119,916 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,419,000 after acquiring an additional 27,769 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 12,020 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,751,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404 shares during the last quarter. Boltwood Capital Management increased its holdings in Accenture by 48.1% during the 1st quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the first quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 27,727 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,652,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Channel Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth $2,893,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $317.49 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $303.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $337.25. The company has a market cap of $198.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.64, 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 plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price 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. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Company 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.