Balentine LLC Has $1.06 Million Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Balentine LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 240.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,388 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,393 shares during the quarter. Balentine LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,057,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lipe & Dalton raised its stake in Accenture by 2,087.4% during the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.6% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $282.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,207,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,909,827. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $306.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $324.54. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $176.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.29.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $365.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.