Truepoint Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Truepoint Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 28.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,387 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,327 shares during the quarter. Truepoint Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,028,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. 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 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $341.93 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $214.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $322.91 and a 200 day moving average of $324.78.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (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 return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.33.

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.