Integrated Investment Consultants LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Integrated Investment Consultants LLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 40.7%, acquiring an additional 1,413 shares during the first quarter, bringing their total holdings to 4,881 shares worth approximately $1.52 million.
• Accenture recently announced a $1.48 quarterly dividend, equating to an annualized dividend of $5.92 and a yield of 2.09%.
• The company's recent earnings report showed a profit of $3.49 per share, exceeding estimates with a revenue of $17.73 billion, up 7.7% from last year.

Integrated Investment Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 40.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,881 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,413 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Lipe & Dalton increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $321,000. United Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the first 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 last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $6.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $277.01. 3,688,592 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,271,111. The business's fifty day moving average price is $302.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $321.87. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $173.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.05, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict 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. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is currently 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.