Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by ICW Investment Advisors LLC

ICW Investment Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,539 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% in 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 valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Bank of America decreased their target price on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Mizuho cut their price target on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.37 during trading on Friday, reaching $340.56. The company had a trading volume of 188,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,772,983. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $322.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.43 billion, a PE ratio of 31.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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 net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.52%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.