Signet Financial Management LLC Sells 839 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Signet Financial Management LLC reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 33.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,661 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 839 shares during the period. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Mather Group LLC. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 19.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 11,852 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,640,000 after purchasing an additional 1,914 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Reuter James Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 30.7% in the 3rd quarter. Reuter James Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,108 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $340,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in Accenture by 54.2% during the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 32,848 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,088,000 after acquiring an additional 11,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its position in Accenture by 25.8% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 190 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $303.10 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $300.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $336.65. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture 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.