Valmark Advisers Inc. Reduces Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Valmark Advisers Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 23.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 13,766 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 4,105 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $285.66 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $306.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $333.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.00.

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.