Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure Sells 4,500 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.67 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $314.61. 1,680,672 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,352,313. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $358.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $342.14. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $211.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.