Private Wealth Partners LLC Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Private Wealth Partners LLC cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,665 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 50 shares during the period. Private Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,112,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $4,594,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in Accenture by 11.9% in 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 buying an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Platform Technology Partners lifted its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 21,516 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture 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 directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. 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 owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $350.12 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $326.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $323.82. The company has a market cap of $219.42 billion, a PE ratio of 32.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.47%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.41.

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.