First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Buys 1,630 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 18,111 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,630 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,277,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after buying an additional 159,696 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,676,000 after buying an additional 68,635 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $1.92 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $305.75. 1,751,215 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,312,141. The firm has a market capitalization of $191.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The business has a 50-day moving average of $299.45 and a 200-day moving average of $335.28.

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). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Wedbush cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $352.74.

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.