Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp Sells 520 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 520 shares during the quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,073,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Searle & CO. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $478,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Redburn Atlantic raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $303.58. 14,905,537 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,918,133. The company has a 50-day moving average of $300.17 and a 200-day moving average of $336.15. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.62 billion, a PE ratio of 27.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.21.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.