Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by AGF Management Ltd.

AGF Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 388,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,307 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.06% of Accenture worth $117,904,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its position in 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 in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $347.84 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $217.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $325.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $323.63.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was 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 approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was 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 approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.41.

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.