Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 99,941 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 428 shares during the quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $30,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $4,594,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after buying an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $733,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Accenture by 13.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 21,516 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $349.58 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $328.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $323.04. The firm has a market cap of $219.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.68.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture 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.