Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 34,905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 670 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,892,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $317,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4%

Accenture stock opened at $300.48 on Tuesday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $309.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $328.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $188.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 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.