Brighton Jones LLC Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 18,117 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its position in Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $1.09 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $329.19. 5,371,854 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,953,049. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day moving average of $300.34 and a 200-day moving average of $332.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $206.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $351.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 13,276 shares of company stock worth $4,103,233. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.