Forza Wealth Management LLC Sells 75 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Forza Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Forza Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $690,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Guggenheim started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total transaction of $766,562.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 47,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,445,775.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total transaction of $766,562.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 47,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,445,775.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $4.85 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $303.16. The company had a trading volume of 4,718,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,463,137. The firm has a market cap of $203.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $348.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.34. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued 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 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Accenture Company Profile

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.