Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Sells $1,369,747.96 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Joel Unruch also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 26th, Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2 %

Accenture stock traded up $0.71 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $317.59. 2,433,300 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,391,084. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $355.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.31.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Redburn Atlantic lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Robert W. Baird lifted 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Accenture by 4.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 7.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,975,517,000 after purchasing an additional 159,696 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.6% during 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. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.