Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Decreased by L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP reduced its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 109,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,241 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 4.2% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $34,253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Channel Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $2,893,000. Matrix Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.7% in the first quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 7,330 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,287,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $862,000. Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $1,878,000. Finally, Iams Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 21.6% during the first quarter. Iams Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,508 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,031,000 after purchasing an additional 1,154 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following 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 position. 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. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $316.41 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $303.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $337.76. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

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.