Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. Sells 8,546 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 81.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,941 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 8,546 shares during the quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $589,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Searle & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $478,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IronBridge Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

ACN stock traded up $2.70 during trading on Friday, hitting $333.27. The company had a trading volume of 1,518,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,841,372. The stock has a market cap of $208.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.52, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $315.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $326.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays cut their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.33.

Accenture Company 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.