Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Sells $2,696,402.25 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $330.12 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $206.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average of $302.60 and a 200-day moving average of $331.93. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.19 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $351.82.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after acquiring an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after buying an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,061,490,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,556,676,000 after acquiring an additional 68,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.