Cornerstone Advisors LLC Sells 200 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cornerstone Advisors LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 27,600 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $4,594,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its position in Accenture by 11.9% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Platform Technology Partners lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

ACN opened at $349.58 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $328.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $323.04. The firm has a market cap of $219.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.01, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the 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 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 company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.68.

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.