Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Cut by Wambolt & Associates LLC

Wambolt & Associates LLC decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 208 shares during the period. Wambolt & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $350.12 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $326.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $323.82.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.41.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.