American Century Companies Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

American Century Companies Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 35.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 667,034 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 359,373 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.11% of Accenture worth $202,385,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.1% during the second quarter. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA now owns 4,936 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,588,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 5.3% during the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 489,781 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $148,605,000 after acquiring an additional 24,630 shares during the last quarter. SP Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 21.4% during the second quarter. SP Asset Management LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $317,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorShares Investments LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at $499,000. Finally, Greenwood Gearhart Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% during the second quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 30,895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,374,000 after purchasing an additional 1,071 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies cut their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.68.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $349.90 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.28 billion, a PE ratio of 32.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $327.07 and its 200 day moving average is $324.00.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were given 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 1.47%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.