Insider Selling: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Sells $1,974,437.50 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Jean-Marc Ollagnier also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 19th, Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $316.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $212.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $355.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.83.

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 net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Veracity Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 27.1% during the 1st quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 3,065 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,062,000 after acquiring an additional 653 shares during the period. American National Bank & Trust Co. VA bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $4,886,000. Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its stake in Accenture by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 3,991 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $217,000. Finally, RBA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $1,032,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.