Insider Selling: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Sells 8,145 Shares of Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $330.12 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $206.88 billion, a PE ratio of 30.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $302.60 and its 200 day moving average is $331.93.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

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.