First Hawaiian Bank Sells 2,797 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Hawaiian Bank cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 47.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,124 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,797 shares during the quarter. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $948,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,061,490,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,556,676,000 after buying an additional 68,635 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after buying an additional 148,738 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies reduced their price objective 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 reduced their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $351.82.

Accenture Trading Up 2.4 %

NYSE:ACN traded up $7.67 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $321.41. 1,390,472 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,916,286. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $201.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $305.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $330.43.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.