Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,212 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $420,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its holdings in Accenture by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 4,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,693,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,551 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $522,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,356 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,581,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,359 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $828,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Finally, Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $239,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5 %

Accenture stock traded down $1.66 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $328.46. The stock had a trading volume of 2,438,247 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,598,002. The firm has a market cap of $205.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average of $303.10 and a 200 day moving average of $331.77. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. UBS Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $351.82.

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.