Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc Sells 56 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc lowered its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,061 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 56 shares during the quarter. Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after buying an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,544,672,000 after buying an additional 443,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,340,568,000 after purchasing an additional 20,876 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total transaction of $766,562.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 47,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,445,775.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total transaction of $766,562.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 47,110 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,445,775.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 0.7 %

Accenture stock traded down $2.25 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $298.66. The stock had a trading volume of 2,612,513 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,497,797. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $347.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.34. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $200.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.