Avity Investment Management Inc. Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Avity Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 107,822 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,884 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 3.1% of Avity Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Avity Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $37,372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE ACN traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $303.41. The stock had a trading volume of 14,905,693 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $336.15. The company has a market cap of $203.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors 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 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Wedbush lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 in the last quarter. Company 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.