TIAA Trust National Association Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

TIAA Trust National Association lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 59,965 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 394 shares during the quarter. TIAA Trust National Association’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,784,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. UBS Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven investment 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 target price of $351.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,276 shares of company stock valued at $4,103,233 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

ACN traded up $1.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $329.19. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,376,237 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,941,180. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $206.30 billion, a PE ratio of 30.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $300.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $332.09.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business 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 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

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.