Provident Trust Co. Sells 16,141 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Provident Trust Co. cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,487,995 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 16,141 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 10.7% of Provident Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Provident Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $522,152,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $308.01. The stock had a trading volume of 3,371,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $349.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $341.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors 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 dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

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.