Seneca House Advisors Decreases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Seneca House Advisors lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,434 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 509 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 1.4% of Seneca House Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Seneca House Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $3,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its stake 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 during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of ACN traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $303.41. The company had a trading volume of 14,905,693 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. The stock has a market cap of $203.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $300.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $336.05. 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 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 return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.