Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 34.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 46,949 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 24,836 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,650,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Sentinus LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $268,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Stonebrook Private Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Stonebrook Private Inc. now owns 1,103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $388,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Viawealth LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the first quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $249.11 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $282.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $309.73. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $236.67 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a market cap of $156.03 billion, a PE ratio of 19.83, a P/E/G 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the 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 $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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. Company 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.