Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,419 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $431,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $286,220,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. 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. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $351.82.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $0.77 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $330.21. 1,790,095 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,866,953. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $206.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $312.62 and its 200 day moving average is $326.69.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share 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 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 prior year, the business posted $3.19 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last three months. 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.