TIAA Trust National Association Has $18.02 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

TIAA Trust National Association trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 59,401 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 564 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association’s holdings in Accenture were worth $18,023,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered 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 note on Wednesday, June 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $341.88 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $321.36 and its 200 day moving average is $324.53. The firm has a market cap of $214.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.31, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is 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.