Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet Sells 8,793 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Julie Spellman Sweet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 17th, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $386.71 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $361.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $351.40. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $242.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.44, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.