Searcy Financial Services Inc. ADV Cuts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Searcy Financial Services Inc. ADV decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,460 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 345 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 0.8% of Searcy Financial Services Inc. ADV’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Searcy Financial Services Inc. ADV’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,546,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $303.41. 14,905,693 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.80, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $300.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $336.15.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid 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 yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.