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

Scharf Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,509 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the quarter. Scharf Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,603,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Accenture by 7.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after acquiring an additional 159,696 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,676,000 after acquiring an additional 68,635 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Wedbush dropped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $1.52 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $303.10. 3,162,001 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,821,270. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $300.69 and a 200 day moving average of $336.65. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month 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 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 company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.