Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Hartline Investment Corp

Hartline Investment Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,490 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. Hartline Investment Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $531,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Founders Financial Securities LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $327,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 23.1% in the third quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 320 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $98,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. KFG Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 16.3% in the third quarter. KFG Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,382 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.1% in the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,298 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $706,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $3.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $313.54. The stock had a trading volume of 4,133,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,408,188. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $210.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $353.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.