WoodTrust Financial Corp Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

WoodTrust Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. WoodTrust Financial Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Piper Sandler Companies reduced their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price 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. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $303.41. The stock had a trading volume of 14,905,693 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $300.17 and a 200 day moving average of $336.10. The stock has a market cap of $203.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its 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 return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.