First Pacific Financial Cuts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Pacific Financial decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,581 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 48 shares during the period. First Pacific Financial’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,257,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. United Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.3% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares in the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 104.8% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after acquiring an additional 225,943 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $340.96 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $213.89 billion, a PE ratio of 30.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $369.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $340.37.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 14th. Redburn Atlantic upped their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.