Spinnaker Trust Sells 153 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Spinnaker Trust trimmed its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,237 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 153 shares during the period. Spinnaker Trust’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,189,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,544,672,000 after acquiring an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,340,568,000 after purchasing an additional 20,876 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.99 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $308.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,371,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. The stock has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day moving average of $341.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm 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 business earned $2.69 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

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.