Kovack Advisors Inc. Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kovack Advisors Inc. decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 686 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 65 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after purchasing an additional 159,696 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,676,000 after purchasing an additional 68,635 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

ACN opened at $305.75 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $299.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $335.28. The firm has a market cap of $191.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

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.