Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Sells 445 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 6.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 6,168 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 445 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,925,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.43.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $282.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $177.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $306.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. 0.02% 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.