Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Fermata Advisors LLC

Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 61.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,691 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 641 shares during the quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $513,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $315.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,851,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,906,728. The business has a fifty day moving average of $307.84 and a 200 day moving average of $329.29. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $197.93 billion, a PE ratio of 28.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler Companies decreased their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $351.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.