LPL Financial LLC Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 489,781 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,630 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $148,605,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. SP Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter. SP Asset Management LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorShares Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter valued at $499,000. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the second quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 30,895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,374,000 after purchasing an additional 1,071 shares during the last quarter. AGF Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 388,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $117,904,000 after buying an additional 29,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan David Investments LLC IL raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 129,557 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $39,309,000 after buying an additional 2,342 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $350.12 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.06, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $326.18 and a 200 day moving average of $323.82.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 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 business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.19 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.