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

Wealthspire Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 82,812 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 341 shares during the quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $25,126,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after buying an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Accenture by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,044,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,055,362,000 after buying an additional 178,003 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $349.58 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $328.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $323.80.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current 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 given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, June 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.68.

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.