Findlay Park Partners LLP Sells 11,400 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Findlay Park Partners LLP trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 648,198 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 11,400 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 2.1% of Findlay Park Partners LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Findlay Park Partners LLP owned approximately 0.10% of Accenture worth $224,672,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 29,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,248,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew 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 worth $9,671,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.3% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,594,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler Companies dropped their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Wedbush decreased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $6.63 on Friday, hitting $299.12. 3,158,860 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,900,785. The stock has a market capitalization of $187.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $299.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $335.07. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

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.