BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Sells 16,984 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 321,986 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 16,984 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $111,604,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Taurus Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 21,543 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,467,000 after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the last quarter. MAI Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.4% during the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 134,862 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $46,744,000 after buying an additional 16,925 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 49.3% in the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,421,042 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $492,547,000 after acquiring an additional 469,112 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 11,341 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,931,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 38,929 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,493,000 after acquiring an additional 4,775 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,609 shares of company stock worth $5,472,981 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Bank of America cut their price target on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $351.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.60 on Wednesday, reaching $325.60. 4,382,690 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,923,390. The company has a 50-day moving average of $299.91 and a 200-day moving average of $332.37. The company has a market cap of $204.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.82, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

About Accenture

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.