First Horizon Advisors Inc. Raises Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 68,265 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,811 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $21,302,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Latitude Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth $201,000. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. now owns 17,658 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $5,510,000 after buying an additional 224 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 23.2% in the 1st quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 5,239 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,635,000 after buying an additional 986 shares during the period. Alley Investment Management Company LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 56,706 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $17,695,000 after buying an additional 541 shares during the period. Finally, FSM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,570 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on ACN. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $2.29 during trading on Friday, reaching $304.58. 1,616,133 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,902,190. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a 50-day moving average of $309.55 and a 200-day moving average of $329.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 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.