Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Great Lakes Advisors LLC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 28.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,956 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 24,756 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $18,495,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

ACN opened at $339.84 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $212.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.12, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $323.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $324.30. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.52%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” 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 dropped their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.41.

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.