Dakota Wealth Management Sells 879 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Dakota Wealth Management lowered its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 37,208 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 879 shares during the period. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,610,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after buying an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Associated Banc Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Associated Banc Corp now owns 1,341 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $472,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 12,533.3% during the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 379 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Choate Investment Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 13,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,729,000 after buying an additional 1,017 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets reduced 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. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of ACN opened at $281.01 on Monday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $273.19 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $309.00 and its 200-day moving average is $326.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued 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 2.11%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.