First Foundation Advisors Sells 1,196 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Foundation Advisors lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 38,336 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,196 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors' holdings in Accenture were worth $13,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its position in Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 126.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $14,090,000 after buying an additional 22,391 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 127.1% in the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 27,921 shares of company stock valued at $9,876,619. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $0.74 on Tuesday, hitting $289.05. 1,805,862 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,465,632. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $334.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $351.59. 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 has a market cap of $181.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.