Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 158 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,303,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 2.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after buying an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $2,061,490,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.6% in 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. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $351.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $319.44. 840,019 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,885,355. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $309.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $328.24. The firm has a market cap of $200.19 billion, a PE ratio of 29.25, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.