John F. Walsh Sells 2,500 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. This trade represents a 11.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $378.61 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $357.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $348.54. The company has a market cap of $236.93 billion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment 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.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

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.