Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Buys New Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,962 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,548,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $3.78 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $276.21. The stock had a trading volume of 3,967,640 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,731,163. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $308.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $326.35. The company has a market capitalization of $173.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is 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.