Wealth Alliance Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wealth Alliance grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 511 shares during the quarter. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,641,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,013,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,740 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, West Paces Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 10.2% in the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Barclays reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.91.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $336.93 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $329.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $322.59. The stock has a market cap of $211.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

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.