Financial Counselors Inc. Purchases 11,883 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Financial Counselors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 62.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,883 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $295,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,442 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,208,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $762,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $794,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the period. Finally, 9258 Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $341.95 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $214.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $320.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $324.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. UBS Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective 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. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 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 $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’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 transaction, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Company 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.