Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Buffington Mohr McNeal

by · The Cerbat Gem

Buffington Mohr McNeal lowered its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 5.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,703 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 97 shares during the period. Buffington Mohr McNeal’s holdings in Accenture were worth $531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew 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 valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth 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 during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on Accenture and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Accenture

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $302.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $189.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $309.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $330.41. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

About Accenture

(Free Report)

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.

Read More