William Blair Investment Management LLC Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

William Blair Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 27.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,033,149 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 387,893 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 0.8% of William Blair Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned 0.16% of Accenture worth $313,468,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Accenture by 2.0% during the 1st 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 buying an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $2,061,490,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.2% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 178,003 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of ACN opened at $349.58 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $328.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $323.80. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, 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 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 three months, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective 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. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, July 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.