Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,931,145 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 50,589 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned about 0.29% of Accenture worth $669,354,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Hedeker Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.4% in the first quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 13,703 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Integrity Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $255,000. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 4,592 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,592,000 after acquiring an additional 419 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.6% in the first quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,685 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $584,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Finally, Naviter Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.1% in the first quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 5,733 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,987,000 after purchasing an additional 663 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler Companies cut their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Twelve 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $1.58 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $305.41. The stock had a trading volume of 240,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,887,882. The stock has a market capitalization of $191.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $299.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $335.76. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.