Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 38 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,569 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC boosted its position 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 buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $433,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,013,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,740 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho reduced their target price on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. UBS Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value 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 $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7 %

ACN stock traded down $2.30 during trading on Thursday, hitting $341.69. The company had a trading volume of 130,945 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,782,190. The stock has a market cap of $214.13 billion, a PE ratio of 31.49, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day moving average of $322.15 and a 200-day moving average of $324.67. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

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 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 the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

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.