Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Insider Sells $1,649,100.00 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ellyn Shook also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, April 25th, Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $328.58 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $303.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $331.85. The firm has a market cap of $205.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 19th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter valued at $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.