Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure Sells 4,500 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $314.73 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $341.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $211.10 billion, a PE ratio of 28.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. United Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 104.8% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $148,871,000 after purchasing an additional 225,943 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.