Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC

Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,634 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 244 shares during the quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $496,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded down $1.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $339.84. 1,613,563 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,781,811. The firm has a market cap of $212.98 billion, a PE ratio of 31.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $323.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $324.30. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.41.

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.