Vaughan David Investments LLC IL Has $39.31 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vaughan David Investments LLC IL lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 129,557 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,342 shares during the period. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL’s holdings in Accenture were worth $39,309,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the second quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 68,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,712,000 after acquiring an additional 1,711 shares during the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 21.2% in the second quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 3,554 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,078,000 after acquiring an additional 622 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in Accenture by 3.9% in the second quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 792,464 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $240,442,000 after purchasing an additional 29,450 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 10.4% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 68,554 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,800,000 after purchasing an additional 6,445 shares during the period. Finally, Hutchinson Capital Management CA bought a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth $11,055,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. UBS Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Barclays cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of ACN opened at $347.84 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $325.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $323.63. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $217.99 billion, a PE ratio of 31.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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