Marietta Wealth Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Marietta Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,958 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,374 shares during the quarter. Marietta Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,164,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,067,651,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

Accenture Stock Down 6.8%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $285.66 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $306.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $333.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.59, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.