Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by MJP Associates Inc. ADV

MJP Associates Inc. ADV lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 62.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,079 shares during the period. MJP Associates Inc. ADV’s holdings in Accenture were worth $225,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Bank grew its position in Accenture by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the first quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 104.8% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after acquiring an additional 225,943 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Wedbush increased their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $5.67 during trading on Thursday, reaching $346.61. The company had a trading volume of 3,611,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,280,661. The company has a market capitalization of $217.43 billion, a PE ratio of 31.36, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $369.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $340.38.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

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.