First Affirmative Financial Network Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings in Accenture were worth $501,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $263,421,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $358.09.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

ACN traded up $2.82 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $308.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,481,762 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,604,425. The firm has a market capitalization of $207.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.32, a PEG ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $301.15 and its 200-day moving average is $337.26.

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 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 firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

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.