Optas LLC Has $413,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Optas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 106 shares during the quarter. Optas LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $413,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 25.8% in the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 190 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 23.4% during the third quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 1,647 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 223.7% in the third quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 26,954 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,278,000 after buying an additional 18,627 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 77.9% in the third quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 9,832 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,020,000 after buying an additional 4,305 shares during the period. Finally, Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,858 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $878,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $303.41. 14,905,693 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $336.05. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.51 billion, a PE ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

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.