LVW Advisors LLC Purchases 88 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

LVW Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 88 shares during the quarter. LVW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $394,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Optas LLC increased its position in Accenture by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Optas LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $413,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its position in Accenture by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 1,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $407,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,891 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $656,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the period. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its position 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 worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its position in shares of Accenture by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after buying an additional 3,900 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

Accenture stock opened at $303.41 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $300.17 and a 200 day moving average of $336.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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 during 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%. The company’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average 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.