Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Legacy Capital Group California Inc.

Legacy Capital Group California Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 41.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 968 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the period. Legacy Capital Group California Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,419 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. GFG Capital LLC grew its position in Accenture by 519.1% in the 2nd quarter. GFG Capital LLC now owns 9,682 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,938,000 after purchasing an additional 8,118 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 9,487 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,878,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the period. West Coast Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the second quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 34,215 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,381,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carnegie Investment Counsel raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the second quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 89,959 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,295,000 after purchasing an additional 2,092 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of ACN traded up $2.55 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $332.92. 620,670 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,853,002. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $312.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $326.69. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $208.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on ACN. UBS Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $351.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.