Raymond James Trust N.A. Acquires 1,748 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 42,456 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,748 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,882,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,061,490,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.6% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 68,635 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Wedbush dropped their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies dropped their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.33.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $2.70 on Friday, reaching $333.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,518,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,841,372. The company has a market capitalization of $208.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $315.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $325.95. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. 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.