Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Insider Ellyn Shook Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $307.93 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $349.66 and its 200-day moving average is $341.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $206.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. UBS Group lifted their price objective 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, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Searle & CO. lifted its stake in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $478,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.