Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Scharf Investments LLC

Scharf Investments LLC grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 7,783 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the period. Scharf Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,361,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 11.6% during the second quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 5,123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,554,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares in the last quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 30.2% in the 2nd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 24,687 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,490,000 after acquiring an additional 5,733 shares during the period. American National Bank increased its holdings in Accenture by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. American National Bank now owns 36,182 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,978,000 after acquiring an additional 4,840 shares in the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.4% during the second quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 5,512 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,672,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rockland Trust Co. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 3.7% during the second quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 64,510 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,573,000 after purchasing an additional 2,320 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $3.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $330.57. 1,677,410 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,849,541. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $314.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $326.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $207.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.27, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS 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 business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

Accenture Company 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.