Valmark Advisers Inc. Buys 404 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,642 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,443,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 29,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,248,000 after buying an additional 2,008 shares during the period. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,559 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,671,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $4,594,000. Finally, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its holdings in Accenture by 11.9% in the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, 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 note on Friday, June 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.33.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $1.74 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $341.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,004,144 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,997,440. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $319.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $325.26. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.31, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.