Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC Sells 155 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 18.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 695 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 155 shares during the quarter. Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $217,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Seven 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.75.

Accenture Trading Down 2.0%

NYSE ACN opened at $294.71 on Thursday. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The business’s fifty day moving average is $307.51 and its 200-day moving average is $332.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.46, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

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.