John F. Walsh Sells 2,500 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,126,833.33. This represents a 11.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $372.99 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $233.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company’s 50 day moving average is $357.37 and its 200-day moving average is $348.01. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after acquiring an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 70.6% in the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC raised its stake in Accenture by 34.1% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

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.