Spire Wealth Management Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Spire Wealth Management decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 19.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 4,673 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $348.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.75.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $300.66 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $188.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $307.33 and a 200 day moving average of $332.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Accenture

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.