Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE

Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE cut its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 877 shares during the quarter. Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $350,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 81.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,955 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 2,224 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $99,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $302.56 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $189.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $308.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $330.60.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

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.