Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,563 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 438 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $303.41. The stock had a trading volume of 11,353,125 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,890,160. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $336.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a PEG ratio of 3.40 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 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.74.

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.