Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Decreased by Ballentine Partners LLC

Ballentine Partners LLC lessened its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 15,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,519 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,683,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush dropped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.41.

Insider Activity

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 shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture 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 transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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. In 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.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE ACN traded down $1.09 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $339.84. The company had a trading volume of 1,613,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,781,811. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $323.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $324.30. The stock has a market cap of $212.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. Accenture’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.