Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. Reduces Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 78 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $986,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $317,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Accenture Stock Up 1.9%

ACN stock opened at $300.66 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $188.31 billion, a PE ratio of 23.94, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $307.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $332.81.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.75.

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.