Confluence Investment Management LLC Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,277 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 3,317 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,150,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $473,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC now owns 6,588 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,283,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,680,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $575,480,000 after buying an additional 124,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motiv8 Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the 1st quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 1,671 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $579,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 1.5 %

ACN traded down $4.93 on Friday, hitting $323.15. The company had a trading volume of 2,682,736 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,095,611. The company has a market cap of $202.52 billion, a PE ratio of 29.59, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $305.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.91.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were 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 approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Bank of America decreased their target price on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

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.