MV Capital Management Inc. Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MV Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,656 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,187 shares during the quarter. MV Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after buying an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $263,421,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were 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 owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4 %

ACN traded up $1.28 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $303.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,007,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,907,548. The company has a market cap of $190.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.68, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $299.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $335.76. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.74.

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.