Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Lowered by Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton

Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton’s holdings in Accenture were worth $157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after buying an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $286,220,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, 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 note on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $337.25 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $211.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50-day moving average is $317.60 and its 200-day moving average is $325.51. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, 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 the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.