Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Proffitt & Goodson Inc.

Proffitt & Goodson Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 21.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,718 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the quarter. Proffitt & Goodson Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $536,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. United Community Bank raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. United Community Bank now owns 2,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $728,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,863,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Benchmark reissued a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.71.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE ACN opened at $304.58 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $309.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $329.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.76 billion, a PE ratio of 24.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

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.