Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Lessened by ICA Group Wealth Management LLC

ICA Group Wealth Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 82.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 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 quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $105,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 214.8% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. 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. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. UBS Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 19th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.68.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $349.58 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization 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. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $328.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $323.04. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.19 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

About Accenture

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.