637 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Bought by Motive Wealth Advisors

Motive Wealth Advisors purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 637 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in shares of Accenture by 100.0% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Mizuho cut their price target on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $351.82.

Accenture Stock Up 4.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $12.74 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $310.73. 3,950,828 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,899,925. The business has a 50-day moving average of $299.12 and a 200 day moving average of $333.13. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.73 billion, a PE ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 given 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 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture 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.