Private Management Group Inc. Sells 75 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Private Management Group Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.9% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 877 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Private Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $266,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Accenture by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $762,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $794,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the period. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 79.5% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,535 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $881,000 after buying an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 206.0% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 2,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,889 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $341.71 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $324.42 and a 200-day moving average of $323.84. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

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.