Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Grimes & Company Inc.

Grimes & Company Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,649 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,357 shares during the quarter. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $22,408,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,975,517,000 after acquiring an additional 159,696 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $2,061,490,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,676,000 after purchasing an additional 68,635 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. 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 three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.22 on Friday, reaching $303.41. 14,905,693 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. The business’s 50-day moving average is $300.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $336.10. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

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.