Greenwood Gearhart Inc. Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Greenwood Gearhart Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 30,895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,071 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $4,594,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Platform Technology Partners grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Accenture by 13.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $347.84 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $325.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $323.63. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.85, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Piper Sandler Companies cut their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.41.

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.