St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC lessened its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 19.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,982 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 958 shares during the quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,380,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $263,421,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $304.60 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $204.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $336.88. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

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 analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. TD Cowen cut their price target on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. 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. Morgan Stanley cut 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

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.