Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Taurus Asset Management LLC

Taurus Asset Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 20,755 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,660 shares during the period. Taurus Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,283,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 29,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,248,000 after buying an additional 2,008 shares during the period. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,559 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,671,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,315,832,000 after purchasing an additional 96,414 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,542 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $9.00 on Thursday, reaching $284.77. The stock had a trading volume of 5,007,777 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,560,590. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $284.29 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $316.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $342.18. The stock has a market cap of $191.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.24.

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.