WBH Advisory Inc. Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

WBH Advisory Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,353 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 63 shares during the period. WBH Advisory Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 29,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,248,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008 shares in the last quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,559 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,671,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $4,594,000. Finally, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its stake in Accenture by 11.9% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $1.31 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $314.57. 189,857 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,895,869. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $197.14 billion, a PE ratio of 28.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $307.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $329.93.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.