Spinnaker Trust Decreases Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Spinnaker Trust lessened its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 251 shares during the quarter. Spinnaker Trust’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,839,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $295.26 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $308.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $331.22. The firm has a market cap of $184.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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