Financial Advocates Investment Management Purchases 141 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,936 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $286,220,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $4.88 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $342.27. The stock had a trading volume of 326,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,807,453. The firm has a market cap of $214.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.31, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a fifty day moving average of $317.60 and a 200 day moving average of $325.51. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business 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 company earned $3.19 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. UBS Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Accenture Company 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.