New Century Financial Group LLC Sells 94 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New Century Financial Group LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 647 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 94 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $224,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during 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. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings 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 worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased 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 period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,061,490,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,676,000 after purchasing an additional 68,635 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.6 %

ACN opened at $305.75 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $299.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $335.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $191.61 billion, a PE ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Redburn Atlantic increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.