Burney Co. Decreases Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Burney Co. reduced its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 296 shares during the quarter. Burney Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings 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 valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings 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 valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Accenture by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,667,393,000 after buying an additional 732,769 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $290.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reaffirmed a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.43.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $286.94 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $306.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $324.37. 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 $179.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.