Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 7.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 149 shares during the quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $603,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% during 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 buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2,782.1% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $450,985,000 after buying an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 10.7% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4%

ACN stock opened at $247.04 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $236.67 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company’s 50 day moving average is $283.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $311.17. The stock has a market cap of $154.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.67, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.29.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. HSBC began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They issued a “reduce” rating and a $240.00 price objective for the company. 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 note on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $360.21.

Accenture 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.