Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 50 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $537,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Accenture by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 182,020 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $55,900,000 after purchasing an additional 14,951 shares during the last quarter. NBT Bank N A NY bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $592,000. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its position in Accenture by 211.5% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 46,751 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,789,000 after purchasing an additional 31,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisor Partners II LLC raised its position in Accenture by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 30,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,421,000 after purchasing an additional 2,356 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $306.27 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $264.42 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $340.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $342.35. The firm has a market cap of $205.43 billion, a PE ratio of 27.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

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.