Kestra Advisory Services LLC Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 50,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,113 shares during the quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,529,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

ACN traded down $1.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $328.46. 2,438,247 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,598,002. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $303.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $331.77. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $205.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.08, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

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.