Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Sells $3,468,574.71 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Julie Spellman Sweet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 17th, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $386.04 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $361.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $351.65. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $241.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Czech National Bank boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 127,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $45,104,000 after buying an additional 7,791 shares during the period. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $220,000. Atomi Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 39.0% during the third quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,302 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $814,000 after purchasing an additional 646 shares during the period. Country Trust Bank lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1,406.3% in the third quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 482 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $170,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,691,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

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.