Ritholtz Wealth Management Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ritholtz Wealth Management decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 19.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,410 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,073 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $478,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,013,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,740 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. 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. Piper Sandler Companies lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target 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. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN opened at $341.95 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $214.30 billion, a PE ratio of 31.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $320.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $324.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. On average, 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. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.