WASHINGTON TRUST Co Reduces Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 80,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,462 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 1.0% of WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

ACN opened at $387.99 on Friday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $364.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $353.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $242.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.55, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. BNP Paribas cut 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.