Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Cuts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 22,698 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,527 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 1.7% of Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,868,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE:ACN traded up $1.92 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $305.75. 1,751,215 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,312,141. The business has a 50-day moving average of $299.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $335.28. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $191.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.00, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.23.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. 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 ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.