Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Cut by Eukles Asset Management

Eukles Asset Management trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,584 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 113 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 2.3% of Eukles Asset Management’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Eukles Asset Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,175,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $99,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Accenture by 47.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 10,367 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,647,000 after purchasing an additional 1,163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target 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. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Benchmark restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $304.58 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average of $309.55 and a 200 day moving average of $329.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $190.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

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.