FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 78 shares during the quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Accenture were worth $343,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 2.1%

ACN stock opened at $311.37 on Monday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $195.02 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50 day moving average of $305.50 and a 200 day moving average of $335.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% 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, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $382.15.

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.