Trustmark National Bank Trust Department Buys New Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Trustmark National Bank Trust Department bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 792 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $275,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 159,696 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,061,490,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 1.6% during the fourth 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. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Accenture by 6.2% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,044,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,055,362,000 after purchasing an additional 178,003 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,276 shares of company stock worth $4,103,233 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $351.82.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded down $0.37 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $331.14. The company had a trading volume of 1,237,005 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,944,127. The company has a market capitalization of $207.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $301.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $332.01. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year 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 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 business 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 firm earned $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Accenture 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.