Cullinan Associates Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Cullinan Associates Inc. lowered its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 90 shares during the quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,569,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $285.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $306.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $333.68. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.