637 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Purchased by Motive Wealth Advisors

Motive Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 637 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 24.0% in the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 133,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $46,428,000 after buying an additional 25,908 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $261,000. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 21,990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,622,000 after buying an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. TFG Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 2,813 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $975,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Finally, W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 30.6% during the first quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. now owns 1,324 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after buying an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 4.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $12.74 on Friday, reaching $310.73. 3,950,828 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,899,925. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $194.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day moving average of $299.12 and a 200 day moving average of $333.13.

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). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price target on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $351.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.