ICA Group Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

ICA Group Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 82.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,682 shares during the period. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $105,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in 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 during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $263,421,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Piper Sandler Companies decreased their price target 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. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, 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 note on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.68.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $349.58 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.08 billion, a PE ratio of 32.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $328.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $323.04.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.19 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last quarter. 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.