Ballentine Partners LLC Lowers Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ballentine Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 15,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,519 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,683,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Piper Sandler Companies decreased their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Susquehanna reduced their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.41.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $1.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $339.84. The stock had a trading volume of 1,613,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,781,811. The stock has a market cap of $212.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $323.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $324.30. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.