Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Whittier Trust Co.

Whittier Trust Co. reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,786 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 954 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 0.6 %

ACN stock traded up $1.79 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $308.97. 3,889,341 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,771,908. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $358.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $357.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of 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 decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $378.91.

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.