Whittier Trust Co. Sells 71,230 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Whittier Trust Co. cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 71.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 28,048 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 71,230 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,510,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler Companies dropped 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. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. UBS Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Accenture Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE ACN traded up $5.41 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $342.80. 387,494 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,807,820. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $317.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.51. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $214.83 billion, a PE ratio of 31.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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 directly 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 SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.