Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Cuts Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,680 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,081 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,709,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Down 2.5%

ACN traded down $7.35 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $281.01. 5,075,765 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,920,596. The firm has a market cap of $176.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $309.00 and a 200 day moving average of $327.12. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given 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 dividend yield of 2.11%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction 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 approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture 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.