Gradient Investments LLC Has $13.80 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Gradient Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 45,497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,723 shares during the quarter. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,804,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.1% during the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 19,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,384,000 after acquiring an additional 7,658 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 14.6% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 24,556 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,451,000 after purchasing an additional 3,121 shares during the period. Dash Acquisitions Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.9% in the second quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 41,629 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,554,000 after buying an additional 5,065 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 34,337 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,418,000 after buying an additional 418 shares during the period. Finally, S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 207.7% in the 2nd quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC now owns 3,849 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,168,000 after acquiring an additional 2,598 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wedbush cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Mizuho reduced their target price 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. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.82.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $1.79 during trading on Friday, reaching $326.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,292,799 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,881,293. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $311.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $327.84. The company has a market cap of $204.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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). 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 company posted $3.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were 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 approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, 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.