EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,904 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 348 shares during the quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,353,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted 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 valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $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, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $351.82.

Accenture Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $4.93 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $323.15. 2,682,736 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,095,611. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $305.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $330.91. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $202.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.59, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 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 analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

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.