Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by ICW Investment Advisors LLC

ICW Investment Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.6% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,539 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,377,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its holdings in 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. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.33.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $340.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 188,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,772,983. The firm has a market cap of $213.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $322.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $324.78.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 company had revenue of $16.47 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.