Summit Trail Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Summit Trail Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 24.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,116 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,362 shares during the quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,781,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Accenture by 16.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Argus set a $370.00 price target on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $370.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% 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 worth $2,507,366 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $298.92 on Tuesday. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $187.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.80, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $308.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $330.80.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

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.