Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Chesley Taft & Associates LLC

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 92,561 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 266 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 1.4% of Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,883,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $382.14.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE ACN opened at $316.41 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $303.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $337.76. The stock has a market cap of $198.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.54, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. 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 data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.