Wedmont Private Capital Decreases Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Wedmont Private Capital reduced its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 318 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Redwood Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.2% in the first quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,892,000 after buying an additional 1,287 shares in the last quarter. Lipe & Dalton lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% in the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 40.5% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 98,633 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,777,000 after buying an additional 28,446 shares in the last quarter. Park National Corp OH lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.3% in the second quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 129,667 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $38,756,000 after buying an additional 5,388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cim Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 59.3% during the first quarter. Cim Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,603 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,714 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $239.59 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $235.83 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $150.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s 50 day moving average is $258.54 and its 200 day moving average is $290.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Rothschild Redb downgraded Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture 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.