4,511 Shares in Accenture PLC $ACN Bought by HF Advisory Group LLC

HF Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,511 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $561,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,146,995,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in Accenture by 120.0% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,482,150 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $690,475,000 after acquiring an additional 1,899,305 shares in the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $311,694,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,173,338 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,192,907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,122,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 84.0% during the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 2,405,683 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $477,023,000 after purchasing an additional 1,097,961 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 price target on Accenture in a report on Monday, June 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $177.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. TD Cowen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $258.00 to $150.00 in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $190.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $150.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $192.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 10,498 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.98, for a total value of $1,710,964.04. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 17,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,890,450.30. The trade was a 37.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE ACN opened at $175.49 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $117.20 billion, a PE ratio of 14.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.09. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $118.15 and a one year high of $291.09. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $151.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $186.45.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.66% and a return on equity of 26.47%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.49 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.08%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.