Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC

Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 73.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,909 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 41,843 shares during the period. Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,245,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 92,083 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $27,938,000 after buying an additional 2,211 shares during the period. Quarry LP increased its position in Accenture by 340.5% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 652 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $198,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 31.8% during the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 15,246 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,626,000 after purchasing an additional 3,676 shares during the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth approximately $303,000. Finally, Greenvale Capital LLP acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth approximately $75,852,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $4.13 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $384.88. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,102,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,768,529. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $359.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $349.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $240.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.