Wendell David Associates Inc. Sells 1,196 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wendell David Associates Inc. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 27,602 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,196 shares during the quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,613,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $314.12 on Tuesday. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $306.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $335.06. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $196.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was 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 directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.