Crewe Advisors LLC Takes $145,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 417 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $145,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.9% in the fourth 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. increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush cut their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.44 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $330.12. The company had a trading volume of 2,754,790 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,950,601. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $302.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $331.93. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $206.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.23, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.