Julie Spellman Sweet Sells 2,284 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Julie Spellman Sweet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, February 5th, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71.
• On Friday, January 17th, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $285.66 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.96, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The business’s 50 day moving average is $330.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $350.70. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,090,000 after buying an additional 22,391 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 127.1% during the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.