AdvisorShares Investments LLC Acquires Shares of 1,650 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

AdvisorShares Investments LLC bought a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,650 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $499,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $762,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $794,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,535 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $881,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 206.0% during the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 2,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,889 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler Companies decreased their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna dropped 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. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.41.

Accenture Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE ACN opened at $347.84 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $325.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $323.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.