Ellyn Shook Sells 5,000 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Accenture stock opened at $307.93 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $349.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.94. The stock has a market cap of $206.54 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Searle & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $478,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.