Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Vident Advisory LLC

Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 11,563 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 874 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,009,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after acquiring an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after buying an additional 159,696 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $2,061,490,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,676,000 after buying an additional 68,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,044,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,055,362,000 after buying an additional 178,003 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $1.25 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $328.87. 965,505 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,936,446. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $302.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $331.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $206.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.23, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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). 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 analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.