Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Boosted by Prentice Wealth Management LLC

Prentice Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,520 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Prentice Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $527,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after purchasing an additional 159,696 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,676,000 after purchasing an additional 68,635 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Redburn Atlantic upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1 %

ACN stock traded down $3.44 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $303.73. 1,742,387 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,806,926. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $300.89 and its 200 day moving average is $336.88. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $203.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). 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 quarterly revenue 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, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.