Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Sells 2,578 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV has reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 25.7%, selling 2,578 shares and now owning 7,453 shares valued at approximately $2.3 million.
• CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock for nearly $635,795, indicating a 21.73% decrease in her ownership, while overall insider sales reached 2,954 shares valued at about $834,280 in the last three months.
• Accenture's recent earnings report showed a profit of $3.49 per share, exceeding estimates, with revenue of $17.73 billion, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 7.7%.

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV trimmed its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 25.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,453 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,578 shares during the quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,326,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,863,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Sentinus LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stonebrook Private Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Stonebrook Private Inc. now owns 1,103 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $388,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. Argus set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Finally, HSBC initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They issued a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4%

ACN stock opened at $247.04 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $154.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.29. The business's fifty day moving average price is $283.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $311.61. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $236.67 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released 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. 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%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Accenture Company 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.

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